Los colegios profesionales y su razón de ser en el siglo XXI

The objective has been the review of the current status of the Colleges and Councils of Colleges of pharmacists, their organization, their recognized functions, the criticism they receive, the real usefulness of belonging to the institution and if they really help to perform professional work well and not only in the technical aspects but that these are combined with the essence of being good people, giving the best of themselves, walking towards professional excellence and integrity. There is no group that is in a better position than a professional association to offer society that advantage, since its work is aimed at knowing the reality of the profession in all its dimensions, always acting in responsible freedom against possible coercion and assuming a responsibility that induces to work better, to provide a serious, rigorous and effective continuous training, and to respect other colleagues, the professionals with whom it relates and of course the users and patients. We assess if in that way, the Professional Association is offering tutelage and encouragement, without that important help the professional may find himself helpless before the vicissitudes produced by a utilitarian, economistic or scientific activism. In the first phase we have reviewed what refers to the legal configuration of the Professional Associations, analyzing the capacity to act, the differences between academic and professional titles, the conformation of the regulated professions, the compulsory membership, the professional specialties, the accreditation and professional recertification and the limits established to the Professional Associations with regard to the legal configuration of the profession, with the aim of having a specific legal framework in terms of their capabilities. And we examine what belongs to its field of action: the social or external function in which it has been observed: continuing training; the creation of a continuing training agency; action before citizens and their rights; the promotion of quality in services and the code of conduct and how the Professional Association must ensure all those aspects that belong to the field of Ethics, professional Bioethics and Deontology. Detecting the short comings that in our opinion exist and that must be addressed. We review the internal function of the Colleges: the organization and control of professional practice; the defence of the legitimate interests of members and professional representation; the application and implementation of the Code of Ethics and Bioethics. We review and reflect on the excellence in the profession and the leadership that the College must exercise in everything that concerns the vocation and especially that of the new generations. In a second phase, we analyze the most common criticisms about professional associations, trying to give a constructive response so that creative initiatives can be adopted that, with innovation models based on understanding, testing and evaluating, lead to the change that we advocate in our professional corporation. We carried out a review of the different organizational structures of the profession, in which we pointed out some observed inefficiencies that can be addressed with innovation models to achieve their correction. Analyze the different situations of professional pharmaceutical organizations in other countries, in order to have experiences that, adapted to ours, can produce professional enrichment and higher levels of reputation. In the third phase, we have been busy proposing a desirable organizational model of the Pharmaceutical Corporation. In it we value everything related to transparency; ethical and humanistic professional leadership, and Good Governance based on the Collegiate Government model, which responds to a humanist vision.