New laws are pushing for a one-size-fits-all approach to the treatment of pain due to the growing concern of abuse and overuse. This is a hot topic due to growing numbers of related hospital admissions and deaths. The key ethical problem is that Dr. Wergin wants to help his patients with their pain management but the new laws restrict his prescribing authority. Forcing a patient to go about their daily activities with uncontrolled pain conflicts with the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence. As discussed in the reading, a reasonable goal is to maximize the patient’s overall well-being, and not just that of a single area (Veatch & Haddad, 59). By enforcing a bottleneck approach to pain management, patients may not achieve even partial functionality due to uncontrolled pain.
Physicians like Dr. Wergin face pressures from medical review boards across the nation because they are primarily responsible for determining and maintaining a patient’s pain management. The author didn’t mention pharmacists in the article because they may not have considered a pharmacists’ role in the matter. Furthermore, they may only see a pharmacist as merely the dispenser of medications with no true responsibility in a patient’s care. Unfortunately, many people may hold the
…show more content…
Additionally, new opportunities in which pharmacists may play pivotal roles to improve on patient outcomes appear every day. For example, medication therapy management is a growing service provided by pharmacists across the nation and this same approach could be applied for pain management and limiting abuse. Moreover, this opens up opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations that could maximize improvements in patient outcomes. Pharmacists could schedule follow-ups with patients to talk about their pain management and make recommendations to the patient’s primary care