Martine Kruijtbosch

190 Chap t e r 5 the supervisor is responsible for giving feedback and assessing the progress of the trainee. It makes sense the supervisors should as well be educated in the professional values, moral reflectivity and MCD. A special interest group with members who are experienced in moral reflection in pharmacy could function as role models for all pharmacists. They could provide specialised support on demand, but could also assess MCD cases on paper, i.e. assignments for (post)academic professional ethics pharmacy education. In the Netherlands there is such a special interest group and members of that group are involved in (post)academic professional ethics education as teachers as well as assessors of MCD reflections of pharmacists in the specialisation program. They regular meet to calibrate assessment strategies. Often community pharmacists experience moral dilemmas due to a disruptive attitude of physicians who for example do not want to provide their value-based arguments for prescribed pharmacotherapy or do not want to listen to alternative pharmacotherapy options (Chapter 2.1). In order to stimulate inter-professional collaboration (later) in practice, both pharmacy and medical students in academic education, and both pharmacists and physicians in postacademic education, should have mixed (professional ethics) classes. In these classes they discuss moral dilemma cases and distinguish their separate and common professional responsibilities. Combined education of community pharmacists and physicians may also promote mutual trust and respect for each other’s knowledge and experience. Community pharmacists depend on these parties as they grant them professional autonomy when they are partners in therapy judgements. Furthermore, pharmacy students and (early career) community pharmacists must be regularly asked about their own conceptions of a professional identity and standards of professional behaviour, and compare these with the expectations of the profession and the society. Such expectations are often reflected in documents like pharmacist oaths and ethical codes such as the Dutch Charter of Professionalism. Recommendations for practice and policy It goes without saying that professional bodies will have to play a crucial role to improve the ethical competencies of both practicing pharmacists, and future pharmacists. Pharmacists working in community pharmacy and in other sectors (e.g. hospital pharmacy, industry) should be trained to use the professional values in their practice. The operationalised descriptions of these values for community pharmacists (Chapter 2.2) may facilitate this