PEBC Medical Ethics and Law 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under PIPEDA and provincial equivalents, patients have the right to:
- Demand that their records be permanently deleted at any time
- Access their personal health information held by the pharmacy (Correct answer)
- Prevent any use of their data for treatment purposes
- Waive the pharmacy's duty to keep records
Correct answer: Access their personal health information held by the pharmacy
Privacy legislation grants individuals the right to access personal information organizations hold about them, including pharmacy dispensing records.
Question 2: A pharmacist suspects a patient is forging prescriptions for opioids. The most appropriate first step is to:
- Dispense the medication and warn the patient once
- Refuse to dispense and, if indicated, notify law enforcement per provincial protocol
- Contact the prescriber to verify the prescription (Correct answer)
- Permanently ban the patient from the pharmacy
Correct answer: Contact the prescriber to verify the prescription
Verifying the prescription with the prescriber is the first appropriate step before making allegations or notifying authorities.
Question 3: The concept of 'veracity' in pharmacy ethics means:
- Maintaining professional competence
- Being truthful with patients and colleagues (Correct answer)
- Protecting patient privacy
- Acting in the patient's best interest
Correct answer: Being truthful with patients and colleagues
Veracity is the ethical obligation to be honest and not deceive patients, a foundation of the therapeutic relationship.
Question 4: A pharmacist provides advice that directly causes patient harm. Under tort law, liability requires demonstrating:
- Breach of duty, causation, and damages (Correct answer)
- Criminal intent and malicious conduct
- Regulatory violation and board censure
- Patient negligence and contributory fault
Correct answer: Breach of duty, causation, and damages
Negligence in tort law requires proving duty of care, breach of that duty, causation, and resulting damages.
Question 5: In Canada, which organization is responsible for setting national pharmacy education and licensure standards recognized by provinces?
- Health Canada
- The Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC) (Correct answer)
- The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA)
- The Canadian Medical Association (CMA)
Correct answer: The Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC)
The PEBC is the national certification body that evaluates the qualifications of pharmacy graduates for licensure across Canadian provinces.
Question 6: A colleague asks a pharmacist to sign off on a controlled substance count they did not personally witness. The pharmacist should:
- Sign as a professional courtesy to the colleague
- Refuse to sign and conduct or witness the count themselves (Correct answer)
- Report the colleague to the provincial college immediately
- Sign but note the discrepancy in private records
Correct answer: Refuse to sign and conduct or witness the count themselves
Signing documentation you did not personally verify is fraudulent and violates professional integrity standards.
Question 7: When assessing a patient's capacity to consent, a pharmacist should determine whether the patient can:
- Read and write in English or French
- Understand, appreciate, reason, and express a choice (Correct answer)
- Provide government-issued identification
- Demonstrate knowledge of all treatment alternatives
Correct answer: Understand, appreciate, reason, and express a choice
Decision-making capacity involves the ability to understand information, appreciate consequences, reason about options, and communicate a choice.
PEBC Medical Ethics and Law 3
Under PIPEDA and provincial equivalents, patients have the right to: