I would like to first start out by saying how incredibly blessed I feel to have been given the opportunity to participate in this wonderful conference, as well as meet and collaborate with all of these incredibly talented faculty, nurses and medical students from around the country.
I did not know what to expect from day one, however, it exceeded any and all expectations. We discussed a variety of topics from the Lewis Blackman story (which without fail also makes me very emotional), to culture, communication and inter- professional relationships. The activity I felt was most eye opening was the domino game. It illustrated just how important clear and concise communication is, as well as how important it is to know your teammates.
This idea of knowing the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of team members really got me thinking about my unit back home and this idea of the physicians, nurses, pharmacists, PT, OT, nutrition, ect. all being equally valuable players on the team. I realized that although I feel I have very strong relationships with most of my fellow nursing staff, that enables us to work incredibly well together, I do not feel that those strong relationships percolate throughout the entire team. I have really started to think strongly about how I can repair this divide between team members. I feel very strongly about this idea of being a team working together for the common good of our patients, though I feel that many of the team members have lost sight of this and a divide has been created. I haven’t developed any concrete ideas for the perfect resolution, however, I think that if we were more connected as a team, at the very least knew each others’ names, our patients would greatly benefit.
I’m so excited for day 2!