The Telluride Experience, even so far, has been everything I hoped for. I have been completely energized by the bright young leaders around me who share a passion for healthcare quality and safety. The faculty has done an excellent job curating a group that is interdisciplinary and diverse, and I have truly enjoyed our conversations.
During day 1, we addressed a great deal of material that I was familiar with from my work with IHI this year, but I benefitted from hearing the real-life clinical applications and anecdotes of these quality and safety principles. Not having much experience myself working with patients or collaborating with a team of healthcare professionals, I have come to really value the input and experiences from the young nurses who came to Telluride. As medical students we may dive deeper into some topics of anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology than nursing students do in school, however the nurses are in the wards far earlier. From their additional years of experience working with patients, nurses have the opportunity to develop their healing touch early on. I am inspired by the fact that most of my nursing peers work in departments such as hematology/oncology and neurosurgical ICU, where I can only imagine the stress of the working environment and complexity of care that their patients require. Moving forward, I believe we will all take away some valuable insight from Telluride simply having future doctors and new nurses working side as we pursue our goals in healthcare leadership, quality, and safety.