Caring Pharmacists, Caring Teachers

Abstract

“Let robots do the counting, you do the caring,” read a headline in a pharmacy newsletter several months ago. The article went on to call for pharmacists to recognize that they cannot compete with technology in the dispensing arena and must focus on what they can do: care for patients. Caring is uniquely human. In her recent book, The Tending Instinct, Shelley Taylor argues compellingly that “The most marked characteristics of human daily life are caring and cooperation, not the unbridled selfishness that many describe as ‘human nature.’” Accepting this proposition of human nature has profound implications on our understanding of pharmacy practice and pharmacy education. The nursing literature is filled with writing on caring. Research papers, textbooks, and curricula have embraced caring as a skill integral to the nursing profession and as a skill that can be identified, analyzed, and learned. Caring, in the professional context, has been defined as expressing attitudes and actions of concern for patients, in order to support their well being, alleviate undue discomforts, and meet obvious or anticipated needs. Pharmacy, on the other hand, while embracing the idea of pharmaceutical care, and publicly stating the importance of caring in a myriad of policy statements, is just beginning to understand and define caring behaviors and how they relate to pharmacy education and our patients’ health. Over the last several years there has been some research and discussion on caring in pharmacy. We have tested a model predicting caring behaviors in pharmacy students using a multi-school sample. Using the same instrument, we have also assessed levels of caring abilities in practicing pharmacists. What have we learned from these studies? First, the college culture can make a difference in students’ levels of caring abilities. Teachers’ attitudes and feelings toward their profession, their school, and their students are powerful tools in shaping students’ behavior. We suggest that it is not so much what we teach and how we teach, but who we are as teachers that affect students’ caring abilities. We also know now that pharmacists demonstrated caring abilities equal to the low to midrange of nurse’s caring abilities, as reported previously. Caring, as we know, has long been central to the nursing profession. Many of us have heard from countless prospective students, “I want to be a pharmacist so I can help people.” It should be no surprise therefore that pharmacists are demonstrating levels of caring abilities that are somewhat comparable to nurses. Galt, in her work on caring, has suggested specific behaviors in the professional arena as well as the personal arena that could describe pharmacist caring. For example, caring behaviors could be “to act directly to fulfill any health care related needs expressed by the patient” or “to pray for the patient.” From this work, she has also gone on to develop a “caring curriculum” and to evaluate the effectiveness of that course in changing caring behaviors. The point of this abbreviated review is this: as pharmacists and pharmacy educators we have recognized the need for caring behaviors and their potentially positive benefit on patients. We have begun to define caring and understand how caring behavior is learned. Our next step, as Galt has already begun to do, is to integrate caring into our curricula. I would like to suggest that the best way to teach caring behaviors is through our behavior. As we have learned, caring is modeled. Noddings has said, “the capacity to care may be dependent on adequate experience in being cared for.” We need to care for our students. What does this mean for teachers? Being respectful, honoring appointments, grading examinations on time, providing feedback, listening, following up, looking at someone in the eye, the reassuring touch, taking the time to ensure understanding. If you examine caring behaviors, many of them are also characteristics of effective teachers. Think about memorable teachers in your past. They may have been challenging, but most likely they are memorable because they cared about you. Corresponding Author: Nancy Fjortoft, PhD. Address: Chicago College of Pharmacy, Midwestern University, 555 31st Street, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1235. Tel: 630-9716417. Fax: 630-971-6097. Email: nfjort@midwestern.edu. As educators we believe in the power of education