Taking Pride in Community Pharmacists' Honesty and Ethics

When Gallup’s honesty and ethics poll first came out 12 years ago, with pharmacists topping the list, I remember some of the comments made by my academic colleagues who seemed to want to belittle the results.

My sense was that too many pharmacy academicians did not respect those who went into community pharmacy, probably because they did not know what they did and were disappointed that they did not follow in their footsteps and become clinical pharmacists. However, they did realize that the poll was based on the image that the community pharmacist conveyed, since they represent the public face of pharmacy.

Now that we have 12 years of pharmacists earning the top 3 spots in the poll, we can better appreciate the results. Our pharmacy graduates are well trained. They know what to do, and they do it regularly. They also care about what they do, and it shows in how they interact with consumers. The result is that patients trust them for advice.

As a former pharmacy educator, I take pride in the pharmacists I have trained. The great thing about pharmacy as a career is that we have many different jobs available that match our skill set, interests, and personalities. We don’t have to just be like our teacher.

As a teacher, I can take pride in the fact that our graduates are able to adapt to many different environments and, as the Gallup poll reminds us, do an outstanding job.

I want to thank all community pharmacists because you give pharmacy a great public face. Thank you for a job well done!