The hope of healthcare, Part 3 – emotional truth in pharmacy

When I was in high school, a song came on the radio that I very much enjoyed. “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane. I don’t believe it ever made it to number one on the charts, and many of my friends would make fun of me as this was a more traditional rock 'n roll song and not the metal or grunge music that was gaining traction at the time. Years later, the song was redone by Rascal Flatts and featured in the Pixar movie, Cars.

In the early '90s, the music industry was a much different place. At the time, buying a compact disk was a bit cost prohibitive for my wallet, especially when you didn't know if you would even like the other songs on the album. In those days, we had something we called a single. It was a cassette that had one or two songs on it. This was our version of iTunes. On the “Life is a Highway” single I bought all those years ago, there was a second song from Mr. Cochrane. That song was titled “Emotional Truth.” As we continue to examine this idea that pharmacy is the hope of healthcare, we absolutely need some emotional truth.

I am by no means a trained psychologist, but I do want to share a couple of things that I know about emotions. 

The first is that you can have two emotions at the same time. For example, you cannot be happy and sad at the same time. You can be one or the other. That said, you can change emotions quite quickly (as I am being constantly reminded of in a house of three teenagers).

The second thing is that emotions are useful. They are meant to spur us on. I had a mentor one time define the “e” in emotion as the energy of motion. The emotion gives us the energy to move in some direction.

The third thing I learned about emotions is that there aren’t good emotions or bad emotions. Emotions simply are. Before I move on, I will concede that being stuck in the same emotional state for too long is likely not good. Again, I am not a trained psychologist, so I reserve the right to be wrong and adjust learnings as we go forward.

So, what does this all have to do with leadership? Emotions have everything to do with leadership! Emotions are the fuel of leadership. And when harnessed correctly, they can advance us a great distance. When we entertain the idea that pharmacy is the hope of healthcare, we must quickly recognize that hope is an emotion. There is a great quote about hope:

“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”

• St. Augustine of Hippo

All I can say is “wow.” This is so true. When we have hope, we have the energy to improve the things around us. As leaders, we essentially become merchants in hope.  When our patients come to see us, they are essentially looking for hope.  And that is what we are to provide them. I didn’t understand this early on in my pharmacy career.  And I am sure on more than one occasion, I did not offer the hope and encouragement my patients needed at the time. 

But let's look deeper at this quote. When you have hope, there are two additional emotions that we should deal with: anger and courage. In my experience, anger is the daughter that I have disproportionately encountered among my peers. Anger about the various systemic issues that exist. Anger over the legislative restrictions and the contractual stipulations. Do not hear what I am not saying. Anger should absolutely be present in these areas. But do not forget anger’s twin sister, courage. We need the emotion of courage to propel us forward to do the things that need to be done to improve the conditions within us and around us for our own benefit and the benefit of the people we serve. 

Do you have hope? Do you have anger? Do you have courage? On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most, how would you score yourself on anger and on courage? We must recognize this truth of our emotions. We need them all to lead others well. Everyone deserves to be led well.

Until next time

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

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