Member-only story
Tough Decision? Use your B.R.A.I.N.
The handy acronym that will help you gain perspective.
While visiting friends in Oregon this past week, the acronym for making decisions — BRAIN — came up in conversation.
Doing some minimal research, I learned that it was originally developed in conjunction with Patient Voices Network, a Canadian-based coalition of “patients, families and caregivers working together with health care partners to improve British Columbia’s health care system.” And though the acronym was developed to support patients and families make the best decisions while navigating medical treatment and care, it can be easily extrapolated to any decision-making process.
A more elaborate version of a simple pro/con list, BRAIN asks a series of five questions:
What are the *Benefits*?
Are there solid reasons for making a certain choice? This could be considered the “pro” side of the pro/con list.
What are the *Risks*?
Conversely, what could go wrong? What are the cons in the pro/con list?
What are the *Alternatives*?
Are your only choices do or don’t? Is there more than one path forward?
