Dispensing Leadership: Taking Calculated Risks

In episode 10 of Dispensing Leadership, Shawn Bjorndal, PharmD, RPh, and Jesse McCullough, PharmD, discussed the unique relationship pharmacists and the pharmacy community have with taking risks in their daily practice.

“This is something that I think is just so common for us as pharmacists,” said McCullough. “I think there's so much conditioning that goes into how we approach risk; just all the regulatory compliance.”

With pharmacists’ unique—often siloed-off—positioning amongst other providers, their relationship with taking risks is unlike their peers across the health care ecosystem. With compliance, credentialing, and several additional checks and balances in pharmacy practice, leaders within this space have ensured the avoidance of medical errors. In a pharmacy landscape like this, taking risks is almost impossible because of regulations.

However, that’s not to say that risk-taking is frowned-upon in the pharmacy industry. According to Bjorndal and McCullough, success in taking risks is significantly reliant on context, mission, and more.

Listen to the last episode of Dispensing Leadership in 2025 to learn more about risk in the pharmacy profession and stay tuned for more to come in 2026.

In Dispensing Leadership, a podcast offering from Drug Topics and RPhAlly, Bjorndal and McCullough discuss essential leadership skills for pharmacists, how to develop them, and how to advance the pharmacy profession. All new episodes of Dispensing Leadership will be available in a video format via DrugTopics.com on the second Monday of each month. Check out our November episode: Dispensing Leadership: More Than Just One Thing.

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