Common sense in pharmacy is rarer than you think

Pharmacy students often complain that many of the things I teach are "just common sense."

I typically respond by asking, "if managerial decision making is just common sense, why are good managerial choices so uncommon?"

Don't get me wrong -- there are many excellent managers and pharmacists who make solid decisions day-in-and-day out. However, almost all pharmacists have been on the receiving end of monumental blunders made by co-workers and bosses. In hindsight, many blunders could have been avoided by better decision making processes.

So, how do we improve our decision making?

The first step is do understand the various forms of decisions we face in pharmacy practice.

There are five types of decisions pharmacists face -- legal, clinical, economic, managerial, and ethical. Different inputs and processes go into each.

If we incorrectly identify a problem, we will use the wrong process to solve it. This can result in poor solution.

For instance, if we look at all ethical problems using a legalistic framework, we might make decisions that legally justifiable but morally indefensible.

Identifying knowledge which is "common" in common sense requires a detailed understanding of all five processes of decision making -- legal, clinical, economic, managerial, and ethical.

I suggest that most students and many pharmacists need more knowledge and training to successfully apply common sense to pharmacy problems.