I'm trying to study for the MCATs and become an MD myself but I do agree with Corpseman somewhat....many family doctors do in fact just look at labs and then write the same scripts. Some don't even look at anything. "z-pak and prometh dm" out the whazoo. It's probably this reason that primary care has for the major part been taken over by NPs and PAs. Yes, the higher echelon of medicine requires much more in depth understanding and clinical decisions but I feel in the primary setting, and even in some higher settings, it's just about following guidelines.....like a monkey would. Pharmacists, too, just verify scripts...like a computer would.
These days there's very little variation since going against accepted guidelines means more liability. So these situations are more common in more acute settings, more serious disease states, and such and for those situations----yes clinical experience and knowledge do matter.
But for everything else...everyone these days (pharmacists, NPs, PAs, and MDs) are just following scripted guidelines and protocols.
