As a PMC Year 1 Student, there have been many occasions when professors have questioned me [and my classmates] on why Pharmacy is a profession. Often, most of us avert our gaze from the professors, unsure about the answer. We don’t want to be called upon to give an answer – why?

Perhaps the seeming reluctance to answer that question is that we have problems defining what professionalism is. Personally, this uncertainty surely translates into a need for self-examination. In 4 years time, we will be graduating as pharmacists, but as professionals?

Instead to alluding to what common perception of ‘professionalism’ is, we should endeavour to define it for ourselves. AACP Council of Deans and APhA Academy of Students of Pharmacy suggest that ‘professionalism’ is the active demonstration of the following traits[1]:

  1. Prolonged specialized training in a body of abstract knowledge

  2. A service orientation

  3. An ideology based on the original faith professed by members

  4. An ethic that is binding on the practitioners

  5. A body of knowledge unique to the members

  6. A set of skills that forms the technique of the profession

  7. A guild of those entitled to practice the profession

  8. Authority granted by society in the form of licensure/ certification

  9. A recognized setting where the profession is practiced

  10. A theory of societal benefits derived from the ideology

In Singapore, with the institution of the CPE[2], it is hoped that the pharmacists serving the community will be better informed of new drugs and their pharmacological effects, retaining their value as ‘guardians’ of medicaments. As students, we can look forward to continually ‘upgrading’ ourselves – skills, knowledge and training to better meet the needs of society.

We also have a ‘guild’ – the newly formed Singapore Pharmacy Council[3].  ‘With enhanced regulatory powers, the Council is to help maintain good professional conduct of pharmacists and raise the standard of pharmacy practice. [in Singapore]’ Certification of a pharmacist in Singapore is conferred upon Registration with the Council, tasked with the challenge of seeing that its members are ‘professional’ in their duties.

 

Pharmacy students can anticipate their acknowledgement of pharmacists are ‘professionals’ in our society; we also have the satisfaction of knowing that the society directly benefits from our services – be it in the form of selling OTC[4] drugs, checking the quality of the medications, formulating new breakthrough drugs, even refining the pharmaceutical manufacturing process.

Perhaps the next time we are questioned, we would be more able to answer the question.

[1] White Paper on Pharmacy Student Professionalism

[2] Continuing Professional Education in ‘Pharmacist Registration Bill’ [http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Publications/070036.pdf]

[3] Singapore Pharmacy Council in ‘Pharmacist Registration Bill’

[4] Over-the-counter drugs