Code of ethics for community pharmacists MCQs With Answer

Introduction

Understanding the code of ethics for community pharmacists is essential for B.Pharm students preparing for professional practice. This concise guide covers core ethical principles—patient confidentiality, professional conduct, pharmaceutical care, informed consent, conflict of interest, dispensing accuracy, and public health responsibilities—within community pharmacy practice. Emphasis on legal duties, recordkeeping, communication, patient counseling, safe controlled-substance handling, and reporting impaired practitioners will help students integrate ethical decision-making into daily pharmacy operations. These MCQs focus on practical scenarios, regulatory standards, and professional judgment to deepen knowledge and prepare for real-world dilemmas. Reviewing these questions will strengthen ethical reasoning and exam readiness. Now let’s test your knowledge with 30 MCQs on this topic.

Q1. What is the primary purpose of a code of ethics for community pharmacists?

• To maximize pharmacy profits
• To provide legal defense for pharmacies
• To protect patient welfare and ensure professional conduct
• To regulate pharmaceutical manufacturers

Correct Answer: To protect patient welfare and ensure professional conduct

Q2. Which principle requires pharmacists to keep patient medical and medication information private?

• Beneficence
• Patient confidentiality
• Nonmaleficence
• Professional autonomy

Correct Answer: Patient confidentiality

Q3. A patient requests a change to a prescribed medication for cost reasons without consulting the prescriber. What ethical principle guides the pharmacist’s response?

• Respect for patient autonomy and collaborative communication with prescriber
• Primacy of company policy over patient desire
• Automatic substitution without documentation
• Refusal to discuss alternatives

Correct Answer: Respect for patient autonomy and collaborative communication with prescriber

Q4. If a pharmacist suspects a colleague is impaired and poses risk to patients, the pharmacist should:

• Ignore it to avoid conflict
• Report concerns to appropriate authorities or employer following protocol
• Confront the colleague in public without documentation
• Transfer all responsibilities without warning

Correct Answer: Report concerns to appropriate authorities or employer following protocol

Q5. Which action best reflects nonmaleficence in pharmacy practice?

• Dispensing medications without verifying allergies or interactions
• Prioritizing speed over accuracy during dispensing
• Double-checking prescriptions to prevent harm
• Promoting off-label use without evidence

Correct Answer: Double-checking prescriptions to prevent harm

Q6. What is the ethical expectation when a patient cannot afford a prescribed drug?

• Refuse to help and follow only prescriptions
• Discuss cost-effective alternatives, assistance programs, or prescriber contact
• Sell a different drug without consultation
• Ignore financial concerns

Correct Answer: Discuss cost-effective alternatives, assistance programs, or prescriber contact

Q7. Which practice is appropriate regarding promotional gifts from pharmaceutical companies?

• Accepting large gifts that influence prescribing behavior
• Refusing all forms of information from companies
• Accepting only educational materials and small tokens that do not influence professional judgment
• Requesting gifts to reward frequent customers

Correct Answer: Accepting only educational materials and small tokens that do not influence professional judgment

Q8. When is it ethically acceptable for a pharmacist to substitute a generic for a brand medication?

• Never substitute under any circumstance
• Substitute when therapeutically equivalent and permitted by law or prescriber
• Substitute only without informing the patient
• Substitute when cheaper even if not equivalent

Correct Answer: Substitute when therapeutically equivalent and permitted by law or prescriber

Q9. What responsibility does a pharmacist have when counseling a patient about medication side effects?

• Provide incomplete information to avoid alarming the patient
• Ensure clear, relevant, and comprehensible information about common and serious side effects
• Refer all questions to the prescriber without answering
• Avoid discussing side effects unless asked

Correct Answer: Ensure clear, relevant, and comprehensible information about common and serious side effects

Q10. Which action best demonstrates professional integrity in billing and recordkeeping?

• Altering records to maximize reimbursement
• Keeping accurate, timely, and honest records of dispensing and billing
• Destroying records to hide mistakes
• Billing for services not provided

Correct Answer: Keeping accurate, timely, and honest records of dispensing and billing

Q11. Under confidentiality rules, a pharmacist may disclose patient information without consent when:

• Sharing with social media to warn others
• Required by law, such as reporting certain communicable diseases
• To increase pharmacy sales
• To inform neighbors about medication misuse

Correct Answer: Required by law, such as reporting certain communicable diseases

Q12. How should a pharmacist handle a prescription that appears forged or altered?

• Dispense without question to avoid offending the patient
• Refuse to dispense and verify authenticity with prescriber or report to authorities as required
• Modify the prescription to match available stock
• Ask the patient to sign a waiver and dispense

Correct Answer: Refuse to dispense and verify authenticity with prescriber or report to authorities as required

Q13. In an ethical dilemma where legal requirements conflict with patient best interest, a pharmacist should:

• Always follow personal judgment over law
• Seek legal advice, follow applicable law, and document efforts to support patient within legal limits
• Ignore the law if the patient pressures
• Stop providing care altogether

Correct Answer: Seek legal advice, follow applicable law, and document efforts to support patient within legal limits

Q14. Which obligation is central to the pharmacist-patient relationship?

• Maximizing sales for the pharmacy
• Ensuring patient safety, confidentiality, and competent pharmaceutical care
• Enforcing prescriber decisions without question
• Sharing patient details with insurers without consent

Correct Answer: Ensuring patient safety, confidentiality, and competent pharmaceutical care

Q15. What is the ethical action when a patient requests emergency refills of a chronic medication and the prescriber is unreachable?

• Refuse and provide no assistance
• Consider emergency supply per law and professional judgment, document and inform prescriber when possible
• Dispense a full year supply without authorization
• Charge double fees for expedited service

Correct Answer: Consider emergency supply per law and professional judgment, document and inform prescriber when possible

Q16. How should a pharmacist approach advertising services to ensure ethical practice?

• Use misleading claims to attract customers
• Provide truthful, evidence-based information and avoid exaggeration
• Offer guaranteed cures for complex diseases
• Disclose competitor weaknesses falsely

Correct Answer: Provide truthful, evidence-based information and avoid exaggeration

Q17. What is the pharmacist’s duty when encountering a prescription with potentially dangerous drug interactions?

• Dispense and ignore the interaction
• Contact the prescriber to clarify or suggest safer alternatives and counsel the patient
• Substitute a random medication
• Delay action until the patient notices symptoms

Correct Answer: Contact the prescriber to clarify or suggest safer alternatives and counsel the patient

Q18. Which activity is part of continuing professional development under ethical standards?

• Refusing all new training
• Engaging in ongoing education to maintain competence and improve patient care
• Relying solely on undergraduate knowledge
• Sharing confidential case details publicly for feedback

Correct Answer: Engaging in ongoing education to maintain competence and improve patient care

Q19. When a minor seeks contraception discreetly, the ethical pharmacist should:

• Always refuse and inform parents regardless of local laws
• Follow local laws on minors’ consent, provide confidential counseling where permitted, and prioritize patient safety
• Provide any medication without counseling
• Report the minor to authorities for seeking contraception

Correct Answer: Follow local laws on minors’ consent, provide confidential counseling where permitted, and prioritize patient safety

Q20. What is an ethical response to a medication error that reached a patient?

• Conceal the error to protect reputation
• Immediately inform the patient and prescriber, provide care, document the error, and report as required
• Blame support staff without investigation
• Ignore unless the patient complains

Correct Answer: Immediately inform the patient and prescriber, provide care, document the error, and report as required

Q21. How should pharmacists handle conflicts of interest in clinical decision-making?

• Allow financial incentives to influence recommendations
• Disclose conflicts and avoid decisions that compromise patient care
• Hide relationships with industry partners
• Prioritize employer profit over patient welfare

Correct Answer: Disclose conflicts and avoid decisions that compromise patient care

Q22. Which practice aligns with ethical medication storage and handling?

• Storing controlled substances with regular stock without secure measures
• Maintaining proper temperature, security, and inventory control for all medications
• Using expired drugs when in high demand
• Allowing public access to restricted areas

Correct Answer: Maintaining proper temperature, security, and inventory control for all medications

Q23. What is the pharmacist’s obligation when asked to fill an unlawful prescription?

• Fill it to satisfy the patient
• Refuse to dispense, explain legal and ethical reasons, and report if required
• Modify the prescription to a legal alternative without documentation
• Charge extra to complicate matters

Correct Answer: Refuse to dispense, explain legal and ethical reasons, and report if required

Q24. In telepharmacy consultations, ethical care requires the pharmacist to:

• Ignore identity verification and proceed
• Verify patient identity, ensure confidentiality, and provide clear counseling remotely
• Share session recordings publicly
• Provide shorter, less thorough counseling than in person

Correct Answer: Verify patient identity, ensure confidentiality, and provide clear counseling remotely

Q25. Which is an ethical guideline for supervising pharmacy technicians?

• Delegate tasks without training or oversight
• Provide appropriate training, supervision, and ensure tasks performed are within legal scope
• Blame technicians for pharmacist errors
• Allow technicians to make clinical decisions independently

Correct Answer: Provide appropriate training, supervision, and ensure tasks performed are within legal scope

Q26. When can a pharmacist ethically refuse to fill a prescription based on conscience?

• Never refuse under any circumstances
• Refuse after informing patient, ensuring continuity of care, and referring to another provider or pharmacist per policy
• Refuse and take no responsibility for patient care
• Refuse only to punish patients

Correct Answer: Refuse after informing patient, ensuring continuity of care, and referring to another provider or pharmacist per policy

Q27. What documentation is ethically important after counseling or clinical intervention?

• No documentation needed for verbal counseling
• Accurate, timely notes in the patient record describing advice given and follow-up plans
• Only document if a problem occurs
• Keep private notes outside official records

Correct Answer: Accurate, timely notes in the patient record describing advice given and follow-up plans

Q28. How should pharmacists handle promotional discounts tied to prescribing specific drugs?

• Accept and promote regardless of clinical appropriateness
• Ensure clinical decisions remain based on patient need and evidence, avoiding biased promotions
• Conceal discount terms from patients
• Limit patient choices to discounted products only

Correct Answer: Ensure clinical decisions remain based on patient need and evidence, avoiding biased promotions

Q29. Which describes the ethical approach to off-label prescribing inquiries?

• Provide off-label drugs without discussing evidence or risks
• Discuss available evidence, risks, benefits, and encourage prescriber consultation before use
• Automatically refuse all off-label uses
• Recommend experimental treatments without consent

Correct Answer: Discuss available evidence, risks, benefits, and encourage prescriber consultation before use

Q30. What is a pharmacist’s role in public health and community ethics?

• Only sell medications and avoid community initiatives
• Participate in immunization, education, disease prevention, and responsible stewardship of antibiotics
• Discourage preventive care to increase medication use
• Provide health misinformation to attract attention

Correct Answer: Participate in immunization, education, disease prevention, and responsible stewardship of antibiotics

G S Sachin

I am a Registered Pharmacist under the Pharmacy Act, 1948, and the founder of PharmacyFreak.com. I hold a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Rungta College of Pharmaceutical Science and Research. With a strong academic foundation and practical knowledge, I am committed to providing accurate, easy-to-understand content to support pharmacy students and professionals. My aim is to make complex pharmaceutical concepts accessible and useful for real-world application.

Mail- Sachin@pharmacyfreak.com