Doctors and Pharmacists
I recently commented on a LinkedIn post that urged L&D professionals to stop being pharmacists and dispensing treatment when they should be focused on diagnosis. It’s a point of view we hear regularly, and of course, diagnosing the issue BEFORE providing a solution is absolutely the right thing to do. But my point was that we need pharmacists. They exist for a reason. They provide a valuable service. They allow doctors to diagnose and recommend treatment, but not spend their time in delivering the treatment. They make sure they treatment is provided safely and (in some cases) recommend alternatives. Pharmacists know a lot more about the way drugs work than doctors. They are specialists in their field. Doctors are specialists in theirs. They work together to treat patients. The average salary of a pharmacist is £43,000. The average salary for a doctor is £54,000. Not a million miles away from each other indicating that they are broadly comparable in value. As an external provider, I play the pharmacist more often than not. My client – the internal L&D manager has done the diagnosis – they often don’t have the time, expertise or inclination to provide the treatment. They want to…