I was so excited to begin my 4-day dive into patient safety and quality at beautiful Turf Valley Resort. One of my goals as a medical student this weekend was to be a sponge – absorb as much information as I can from both the organized program as well as connecting with medical student, resident, and nursing peers attending. Since I haven’t seen any patients in real life yet, I just wanted to hear stories and appreciate others’ experiences to best prepare myself for when that time comes.
One of the most memorable things I learned about from the first day was how to approach bringing up issues to and reporting higher authority figures in the medical hierarchy. I really appreciated learning about tangible things that can be done by even medical students: calling a hospital hotline, framing concerns as questions, and shedding the fear of “career risk” over “patient risk.” I also learned new terms such as premature closure and informed consent, and how important it is to always be vigilant about these concepts when taking care of patients to avoid the situation that happened to Lewis Blackman.
Looking forward to a great second day!