Lightbulbs and Helpful Advice from Day 3 of Telluride Patient Safety Roundtable

A lightbulb: Today we discussed the importance of including patients at risk analysis meetings and as members of QI teams because they keep us honest.  I couldn’t agree more and also realized today that there are things that happen and are said within the health care setting that I would have found appalling prior to entering medical school.  But somewhere along the way (probably most profoundly during third year) I lost sense of this.  Things I should find egregious I don’t.  Here is where we absolutely need patients and members of the community to provide a reality check and put us back in touch with a perspective we can’t always access any more.

Helpful Advice from David Mayer as I begin applying to residency programs and want to find one in which I will continue to learn and be pushed around issues of patient safety and QI:

A) Ask the residency program two specific questions

1) Do you have a simulation center?  [This will allow you to gain mastery of skills vs. just minimal competence.]
2) Can you show me your resident QI curriculum?

B) For the programs that are your most serious and realistic choices, arrange to spend a day before or after your actual interview rounding with a team.  This will truly allow you to assess how they communicate.

Thanks Dave!  Would very much appreciate additional advice from anyone else who has ideas on this topic!