Professional and Ethical Standards, Patient Counseling, and Error Reporting
Professional-practice questions test counseling, confidentiality, ethical decision-making, and error reporting. The exam expects patient protection and honest documentation, not concealment.
Core rules
- Offer or provide counseling per state law; use language the patient understands, including purpose, directions, precautions, and when to seek help. Document refusal when required.
- Protect confidentiality under HIPAA and state law; share only the minimum necessary information. Social media and conversations in public areas can breach privacy.
- Medication errors require immediate patient safety action, prescriber notification, documentation, and internal reporting. Serious errors may require board or other reporting under state law.
- Participate in quality improvement and nonpunitive error reporting; disclose errors to patients as required by policy and ethics.
- Recognize impairment, conflicts of interest, and boundaries; report impaired colleagues through the proper channel.
Worked example
A patient receives the wrong strength of a seizure medication. The pharmacist contacts the patient, assesses for harm, notifies the prescriber, arranges correction, documents the event, and files the internal error report. The reasoning: patient safety and disclosure come first; the report is not an admission of liability and should not be altered to hide the error.
Traps
Counseling only when asked; discussing a patient's case in a public area; failing to document an error; and assuming every error must be reported to the board-know your state's threshold.