Attending the Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety is important to me because not only am I a RN, but I am also a nurse educator. I feel a great deal of responsibility when it comes to preparing future generations of registered nurses, and I hope to prepare all my student nurses to the best of my ability. To do this, I must be a prepared, engaged, and experienced leader and educator. Attending AELPS will allow me to network with other emerging, dedicated healthcare providers who share my enthusiasm for patient safety. As a RN at the VA, I have grown significantly invested in increasing the safety and quality of care that my Veterans receive. I serve on the Nursing Research Shared Governance council at my home VA and feel that by attending AELPS, I will bring back valuable information that will only continue to improve the safety of the patients within the VA.
I can recall many near misses that I have been associated with during my 8 years of nursing experience (whether caught personally or witnessed/experienced as a nurse educator) that I reflected on while reading the required texts. There were multiple times that I thought back to similar experiences I have had and while reading “Why Hospitals Should Fly”, I got very excited thinking that I could impact patient safety the way fictional Dr. Jack Silverman did – knowing that attending AELPS is another step I can take in making a lasting change.
To put it simply, attending AELPS is important to me because I want to make healthcare safer for my family, friends, and patients. I want future generations of nurses to know that they can make a difference. Upon returning to my home VA and university, I hope to inspire my peers and students to “make healthcare safe again”.
