Here are some more student faces and voices from this week's Patient Safety Summer Camp in Telluride, Colorado.
Thinking back on our discussions today, the role of communication is crucial for safety in health care. One aspect that I think cannot be stressed enough is that communication is not just speaking well but also listening well. Health providers are often so preoccupied with the things they have to relay to others that they forget to truly hear others.
The power of silence and active listening is sometimes more important and informative than any book, diagnostic test, or preconceived notions. A note from Heather.
As I experience the absolute beauty of Telluride, CO I am so incredibly thankful to be in a new, exciting place for 4 days with beautiful scenery and equally beautiful people. The townspeople I have met on gondola rides or in shops have significantly enhanced the beauty of the place in which they live. Their welcoming spirits and adventurous selves have significantly added to my experience “out west” in Telluride, in the short day and a half of being here.
Similarly, my fellow Telluride Experience learners and faculty members have impressed me with their incredible stories, experiences and obvious passion for patient safety and quality improvement. As I sit down to reflect on day 1 of the most thought provoking Summer Camp I have ever attended in my 22 years of life, I sift through my 7 pages of hand scribbled notes and can’t help but take a step back & wonder: how exactly did I get here? What made me apply? Where did this passion originate? What is it that I am so passionate about that made an eight hour day in a quaint school room seem like merely three hours? What is it that kept me so awake and so attentive throughout the day (aside from the two cups of coffee)? A note from Kathleen.
I never ventured out of the Florida and Georgia area, so getting a chance to see Colorado has been an amazing and inspiring experience. There are few things I enjoy more than driving so I decided to take on the 7 hour trek to Telluride after flying into Denver from Tampa, Florida. It was easily one of the most memorable experiences in my life. The natural beauty that I witnessed in Colorado and Telluride left me breathless and nearly in tears. I never imagined that something can be so perfectly created. Coincidentally I am at this summer camp discussing patient safety, where learning how to perfect our healthcare system comes naturally. Thanks to a wonderful faculty and the serenity of Telluride I had the fortune of seeing some incredible minds being inspired today. It is truly amazing to see so many of my future colleagues care so much about their patients. It is an absolute honor to be here. A note from Rahul.
“How could you let this happen?!” The thought raced through my head as doctors and nurses examined an ever-worsening Lewis Blackman in the series of events that led to his death. As the information was presented in the video, it was exceedingly clear that the prognosis was getting worse and worse. And yet everyone who cared for Lewis appeared to only see the snapshot of their interaction, decide that he was within normal post-operative ranges, and manage the symptom in isolation.
After hopping on the gondola and experiencing one of the best morning commutes I could imagine, we settled in for a day filled with thoughtful discussion, heart wrenching stories and collaborative learning. Unlike many of my colleagues here, I have a very limited background in quality improvement and patient safety. I am here because of a personal experience where a family member of mine was subject to a medical error that rocked our family and forever changed it. I came to seek out knowledge that I feel is one of the most important topics I should be learning in my medical school curriculum but has been largely absent, at least so far. I also just completed my first year of medical school so I also have a very limited exposure to working in the hospital and seeing these errors occur from the physician and nurse’s side. For this reason I am so grateful to be put together with this group of people who are able to contribute so many different perspectives and experiences that I can feed off of and discuss these difficult topics with.
I learned so much in one day at Telluride and I cannot wait to see what the next few days bring. Being a part of this experience so early in my education is empowering. I feel very lucky that there is such an incredible group of people passionate enough about patient safety to bring all of us out here and share with us lessons and tools that will help us be better health care providers and begin changing the culture in which we care for our fellow human beings. A note from Valerie.
- Why am I here? I want to become a positive deviant, but I don’t know how. Over the years in med school I have learned tools and stories, but I have not seen the vision of sustainable positive cultural change that puts all these great things in one place.
- What do I want to take with me? Feeling rejuvenated, empowered to start a change. I do not want just another toolbox, but I want to catch the vision. A note from Daewoong.
Thinking back on our discussions today, the role of communication is crucial for safety in health care. One aspect that I think cannot be stressed enough is that communication is not just speaking well but also listening well. Health providers are often so preoccupied with the things they have to relay to others that they forget to truly hear others.
The power of silence and active listening is sometimes more important and informative than any book, diagnostic test, or preconceived notions. A note from Heather.
As I experience the absolute beauty of Telluride, CO I am so incredibly thankful to be in a new, exciting place for 4 days with beautiful scenery and equally beautiful people. The townspeople I have met on gondola rides or in shops have significantly enhanced the beauty of the place in which they live. Their welcoming spirits and adventurous selves have significantly added to my experience “out west” in Telluride, in the short day and a half of being here.
Similarly, my fellow Telluride Experience learners and faculty members have impressed me with their incredible stories, experiences and obvious passion for patient safety and quality improvement. As I sit down to reflect on day 1 of the most thought provoking Summer Camp I have ever attended in my 22 years of life, I sift through my 7 pages of hand scribbled notes and can’t help but take a step back & wonder: how exactly did I get here? What made me apply? Where did this passion originate? What is it that I am so passionate about that made an eight hour day in a quaint school room seem like merely three hours? What is it that kept me so awake and so attentive throughout the day (aside from the two cups of coffee)? A note from Kathleen.
I never ventured out of the Florida and Georgia area, so getting a chance to see Colorado has been an amazing and inspiring experience. There are few things I enjoy more than driving so I decided to take on the 7 hour trek to Telluride after flying into Denver from Tampa, Florida. It was easily one of the most memorable experiences in my life. The natural beauty that I witnessed in Colorado and Telluride left me breathless and nearly in tears. I never imagined that something can be so perfectly created. Coincidentally I am at this summer camp discussing patient safety, where learning how to perfect our healthcare system comes naturally. Thanks to a wonderful faculty and the serenity of Telluride I had the fortune of seeing some incredible minds being inspired today. It is truly amazing to see so many of my future colleagues care so much about their patients. It is an absolute honor to be here. A note from Rahul.
“How could you let this happen?!” The thought raced through my head as doctors and nurses examined an ever-worsening Lewis Blackman in the series of events that led to his death. As the information was presented in the video, it was exceedingly clear that the prognosis was getting worse and worse. And yet everyone who cared for Lewis appeared to only see the snapshot of their interaction, decide that he was within normal post-operative ranges, and manage the symptom in isolation.
Prior to medical school, I worked and conducted research an
engineer in wind and water resources. Data might be collected for
multiple years before decisions were made to move ahead with a project.
Working with a patient, the appropriate course of action is not
always clear and major decisions must be made as the data is acquired.
But from an engineering background, while it’s a challenging problem,
it’s a problem that can be solved. We need to ensure that all the
information – collected by the physician, by the nurses, and reported by
the patient and family – is communicated and clearly available. We
need to ensure that decisions aren’t swayed by fatigue, by time limits,
by organizational demands, or by peer pressure. And we need to engage
the team in solving the problem, because ultimately, this should not be
another onerous top-down requirement, but an exciting opportunity to do
better. A note from Shara.
After hopping on the gondola and experiencing one of the best morning commutes I could imagine, we settled in for a day filled with thoughtful discussion, heart wrenching stories and collaborative learning. Unlike many of my colleagues here, I have a very limited background in quality improvement and patient safety. I am here because of a personal experience where a family member of mine was subject to a medical error that rocked our family and forever changed it. I came to seek out knowledge that I feel is one of the most important topics I should be learning in my medical school curriculum but has been largely absent, at least so far. I also just completed my first year of medical school so I also have a very limited exposure to working in the hospital and seeing these errors occur from the physician and nurse’s side. For this reason I am so grateful to be put together with this group of people who are able to contribute so many different perspectives and experiences that I can feed off of and discuss these difficult topics with.
I learned so much in one day at Telluride and I cannot wait to see what the next few days bring. Being a part of this experience so early in my education is empowering. I feel very lucky that there is such an incredible group of people passionate enough about patient safety to bring all of us out here and share with us lessons and tools that will help us be better health care providers and begin changing the culture in which we care for our fellow human beings. A note from Valerie.
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