Harvey A. K. Whitney Lecture. We really do care.

The evolution of pharmacy as a caring profession is discussed. Pharmacy has always been a caring profession. However, the focus of that caring has shifted over time. During the compounding and manufacturing era of the 1950s, pharmacists expressed their caring by preparing drug products in accordance with stringent quality-control procedures. The unit dose era saw pharmacists caring by seeking to eliminate unnecessary nursing manipulations, ensuring that patients received their drugs, and decreasing the medication error rate. The clinical pharmacy era had pharmacists providing drug information and monitoring pharmacokinetics. Until recently, activities centered on the drug and were geared primarily to the physician or to economics. Today, dissemination of the philosophy of pharmaceutical care is causing pharmacists to take full responsibility for actions devoted to ensuring the best possible outcomes of drug therapy for the least cost. Pharmaceutical care has become pharmacy's mandate. But pharmaceutical care cannot be embraced with rhetoric and changed departmental names alone; it must be practiced. Under pharmaceutical care, pharmacists are gaining more prescribing authority. Pharmaceutical care also offers the opportunity for greater continuity of care and broader professional unity among pharmacists. Pharmacy has always progressed most during times of adversity like these. Pharmacy must strive to uphold the profile of the department, and pharmacy directors must maintain their leadership, along with their ability to practice on the front lines. Pharmacists should continue to demonstrate their value to physicians and administrators. Residency programs must not neglect the mentor-resident relationship, as this nourishes the development of future leaders.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)