Perspectives on Hilton Head.

Abstract

A conference ASHP sponsored in 1985 on directions for clinical practice in pharmacy (the "Hilton Head conference") is analyzed, and the implications of the conference for practitioners are discussed. The Hilton Head conference was a consensus-building exercise through which practitioners developed shared values, goals, and ideals about the basic purpose of the profession. The conferees agreed that a fundamental purpose of pharmacy is to serve as a force in society for safe and appropriate use of drugs. In pursuing the implications of this point of agreement, it is argued that pharmacy should not foster a separate corps of clinical practitioners. Rather, traditional pharmacy should be melded with the values system fostered by the clinical movement so that pharmacy as a whole will become more fully professionalized. Directors of pharmacy departments should launch consensus-building efforts within their departments through which strategic plans can be developed to increase pharmacy's clinical thrust. If all pharmacists in a department participate in the development of a clinically focused strategic plan, they will have a greater commitment to the success of that plan. If pharmacists see themselves as practitioners of a clinical profession, they will speak and behave accordingly, and others will perceive of them as clinical professionals.