Decision

Some of you may not understand why I was so confident that, in spite of asking for advice from so many people, my friend would hardly make any progress in her career.

Let me explain in a convoluted way by a recent dialogue between JN (one of our trainees) and myself.

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(After morning round.)

“Boy, you have quite some experience now. Put up more confidence and be ready to make decisions yourself.” I suggested.

“Em… Many a time I’m not that comfortable. I always worry I may have missed some important information or there is a major gap in my knowledge.” He explained.

“That’s hardly a reason,” I smiled, “You know, amongst all decisions that we make during clinical practice, around 80% are administrative ones. All that require is a tinge of common sense and no medical knowledge.”

“Yes…?” My friend seemed incredulous.

“And for the remaining 20%, what you decide doesn’t make any difference in over 18%,” I continued, “All you need is a timely decision – whatever you choose doesn’t really matter.”

“But, if there are more experience people around, wouldn’t it a good idea to ask for their opinion before jumping to a conclusion?” He still appeared confused.

“No, it wouldn’t. A prompt decision with a small error is almost always better than a perfect decision that comes late.” I was affirmative.