Telluride Day 1
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)?
Having just graduated nursing school in mid- May, studying for the NCLEX, & preparing to move to Washington, DC, for the first time in a long while I am taking the time to sit down and reflect on what I experienced in the past that landed me in this gorgeous state with incredibly impressive, passionate, & forward-thinking healthcare workers. I owe much to my Boston College mentor, Dr. Kathleen Ahern Gould, for introducing me to IHI, particularly the IHI Open School, and the many faculty members of IHI in Cambridge. Leaders of IHI, such as Don Berwick, Maureen Bisognano, Kate Hilton, and of course Helen Haskell whose heart wrenching story we all listened to this morning, all sparked my interest in patient safety and quality improvement as a sophomore nursing student and since then have only added fuel to the ever-growing fire! I cannot wait to see what the next few days will bring here in Telluride. I already have great ideas to bring back to Boston College’s IHI Open School Chapter and look forward to what my newfound Georgetown colleagues and I brainstorm in the coming days!