ABSTRACT
Before addressing the occupational status of pharmacists as professionals, we shall first consider what is meant by the term ‘profession’. Opinions vary as to what distinguishes an occupation as a profession. Some occupations, such as law and medicine, have acquired a preeminent status in society and have historically been endowed with power and prestige, commensurately attracting social and economic rewards. For these occupations, the term profession has a specific meaning distinct from its more colloquial sense, i.e. the opposite of amateur. Thus, ‘professional’ sports persons, though skilled and paid to play their chosen sport, do not possess the key characteristics of a profession. Occupations aspiring to professional status do so in order to gain and protect certain privileges such as a monopoly of practice, autonomy of action and enhanced remuneration. This chapter is divided into two sections in which we shall deal firstly with definitional issues of professions and professionalism, and secondly, with an analysis of pharmacy as a profession.
