The hope of healthcare, Part 4 - learning to be the buffalo
In 2016 I was told an interesting story that I will share with you today. As we continue our examination of pharmacists as the hope of healthcare, I believe this story contains a very important lesson that we all need to understand.
In the United States, the state of Colorado is special because the western half of the state features the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern half of the state features the Great Plains. What the story tells us is that as weather travels from west to east, it must go up and over the mountains. The result is that as the weather comes over the mountains, the storms move some distance past the mountains and then let loose.
On the plains, we can find cattle and buffalo. What is interesting about these two animals is how they respond to the coming storm. I am not qualified to explain how this happens, but I can tell you that these two animals respond in dramatically different ways. When the cattle sense the storm coming, they instinctively begin moving east. The buffalo, however, when they sense the storm coming, begin to head west.
As the storms arrive, the buffalo, who are moving toward the storm, are in the storm for a shorter period of time than the cattle, who are trying to outrun the storm.
There are a couple very important lessons that we can take from this story. First, the storms will always come. When we sense the storms coming, what do we do? Do we run towards them or away from them? The second lesson is this: Be the buffalo.
In my 20+ years in pharmacy, I have seen all kinds of storms handled all kinds of ways. Too often, I have observed colleagues adopting the philosophy of the cattle and trying to outrun the storm.
I can recall early in my career reporting to my district manager about a situation (or storm if you will) that I encountered and felt would become a problem if not addressed. The counsel I was given at the time was that I should not go looking for problems.
I will not tell you that this is bad advice. I absolutely believe there are many things that happen that resolve on their own. But the things that will become bigger issues need to be tackled head on sooner rather than later.
Fast forward several years. At that time, I had a small team and served on a larger team looking to train about 12,000 pharmacists for immunization services. One day, my boss pulled me aside and informed me that he was concerned that I was going to have an issue with someone on my team real soon. That was not what I wanted to hear. This team member was solid, perhaps one of the top performers in the entire department. So, I chose to ignore the warning. Or perhaps, like the cattle, I thought if I ran away from it, the problem would go away. It didn’t. By the end of the year, this person had left my team.
Allow me to repeat the lessons again. Storms will come. They will always come. Be the buffalo!
How many of us have encountered situations with patients where we find ourselves dealing with bigger problems because the smaller problems were not addressed earlier? We all have! Medication adherence, complex therapies, opioid use, managing drug interactions, the list can go on and on!
If pharmacists are the hope of healthcare, we must be the buffalo.
What is one thing you can do today to be the buffalo? It may not even seem major to you, but know it can make a huge difference. Do me this favour, drop me a quick note on LinkedIn about how you were the buffalo today. I would love to know.
Until next time
Jesse McCullough, PharmD
Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn
