What ethical principle supports making decisions that lead to the best outcome for the patient?

Beneficence is the ethical principle that emphasizes acting in the best interest of the patient, promoting their well-being and ensuring positive health outcomes. This principle requires healthcare professionals to take actions that benefit patients, which may involve providing effective treatment, alleviating suffering, or improving overall quality of life. In the context of pharmacy practice, adhering to beneficence means evaluating treatment options, counseling patients, and making recommendations that ultimately enhance the patient's health and welfare.

While other ethical principles—such as justice, nonmaleficence, and veracity—play significant roles in guiding healthcare decisions, they focus on different aspects. Justice addresses fairness and the equitable distribution of healthcare resources, nonmaleficence emphasizes the obligation to avoid harm to patients, and veracity is concerned with truthfulness and honesty in communication. However, none of these principles fundamentally prioritize the patient's best outcome in the same way that beneficence does. Thus, beneficence is the guiding principle for making decisions that lead to the best possible outcomes for patients.