Profession-specific standards
Applying the SPC Code of Ethics 2015 to supply, prescriptions, misuse, commerce, conscience and collaboration in Singapore pharmacy practice
Pharmacists registered with the Singapore Pharmacy Council in hospitals, polyclinics, retail and community pharmacy, nursing homes, industry and wholesale, including conditionally registered pharmacists, preceptors, pharmacists-in-charge and collaborative prescribing pharmacists.
Structured learning and a written reflection to show insight after a complaint, an investigation or a board inquiry.
Focused learning on a core standard of practice, with a certificate and reflection for your portfolio.
A practical, pharmacy-specific ethics course built around the Singapore Pharmacy Council Code of Ethics 2015. You will work through all ten principles, in their three components, as they play out in real pharmacy decisions: supplying pharmacy-only medicines, questioning prescriptions, medicines with misuse potential, health supplements and advertising, conflicts of interest and incentives, conscientious objection, dispensing errors, professional independence, delegation and supervision, raising concerns, collaborative prescribing and e-pharmacy.
It is written for pharmacists registered with the SPC in public hospitals, polyclinics, retail and community pharmacies, nursing homes and community care, industry and wholesale, including conditionally registered pharmacists, preceptors and pharmacists-in-charge. Case studies are set in Singapore settings, from mall and heartland pharmacies to hospital outpatient pharmacies, anticoagulation clinics and e-pharmacy services.
The course places the Code within its legal setting: the Pharmacists Registration Act 2007, HSA's classification of therapeutic products and retail pharmacy licensing, the Misuse of Drugs Act, health supplement and advertising rules, the PDPA and the Mental Capacity Act. It ends with the SPC's complaints and disciplinary process and a practical approach to insight, remediation and ethical growth through CPE.
10 sections · 23 lessons · 3 hours (estimated) · 20-question final assessment
Final assessment
20scenario-based questions
Certificate of completion
A certificate of completion for your learning portfolio.
The course includes a structured reflective account template: guided prompts to record what you learned, how you will apply it and how the change will show in your practice. It gives you written evidence of insight after a concern, and a ready record for your CPD portfolio.
Write it in your own words and leave out anything that could identify a patient, a colleague or a case. If you have an open complaint or case, talk to your adviser before reflecting on it in writing.
Yes. Every principle, from patient care first to nurturing future pharmacists, is applied to real pharmacy decisions, together with the Pharmacist's Pledge and the Ethical Code on Advertising by Pharmacists. The course also explains how the SPC uses the Code when a concern is raised.
It gives a structured supply sequence for P medicines, explains HSA's record requirements and shows how to decline and refer in a way that is safe and respectful, including for medicines with misuse potential such as codeine-containing cough preparations and sedating antihistamines.
It applies guideline 2.1: personal beliefs must not shape patient management, and a pharmacist who cannot provide care for this reason must refer the patient to a willing pharmacist. It explains how to plan for objections so that patients never face a barrier to care, and how objection differs from discrimination and from clinical judgement.
Yes. It covers sales incentives, supplier hospitality, sponsored education, committee conflicts, targets and pressure from employers, and shows how to avoid, declare and manage conflicts while protecting professional independence under guideline 4.3.
Yes. A lesson sets out MOH's framework for collaborative prescribing, including the collaborative practice agreement, credentialing and personal accountability, and another applies the Code and HSA's e-pharmacy requirements to telepharmacy, remote counselling and social media.
Whether any activity counts is for the SPC to decide under its own rules, so check the SPC's CPE guidance before relying on it. You can include your certificate and reflection in your own learning record.
About 3 hours of self-paced learning with seven knowledge checks, case studies and a reflective account, and a final assessment of 20 scenario-based questions with an 80% pass mark (16 of 20). You receive a certificate of completion when you pass.
Every legal and regulatory point comes from primary sources: the Acts that set up each professional board, the boards' own codes and guidance, and the Ministry of Health. Anything we cannot confirm is left out.
Lessons, scenarios and assessment questions are written by us for each edition separately, then checked for accuracy, teaching quality and fair assessment before publication.
When a code, standard or law changes, the affected courses are reviewed and updated. Reported errors in legal or regulatory facts are corrected first.
SPC competency standards and Code of Ethics in practice, registration and CPE, safe supply, HSA licence duties, supervision and the SPC complaints process.
Ethical reasoning for Singapore practice: a seven-step framework, the boards' codes, section 37 consent, family-centred decisions, the Mental Capacity Act and end-of-life law.
Honesty in records, medical certificates, MediSave and MediShield Life claims, declarations, advertising and conflicts of interest, mapped to the SMC ECEG and other Singapore codes.
