During my first year of medical school, I had a friend a year ahead of me that was able to attend the Napa Telluride Experience last year. She had shared with me that I would greatly benefit from applying and that I would be a good pick. Once I looked at what it all entailed, I was amazed at what an opportunity this is for medical students, nursing students, and medical residents from around the country. I have always found that learning about safety practices and trying to implement them are the best preventative ways to decrease the number of errors in the workplace, in the medical field in our instance. Before starting medical school, I took a gap year working as an administrative fellow at Van Wert Health in my hometown of Van Wert, Ohio. In this position, I worked under the COO and I was able to learn so much about both the clinical and business sides of medicine. One aspect that I explored through the year was patent safety measures. Some of the projects that I worked on during the year including updating the fall risk markers in each of the rooms, reevaluating the “look alike, sound alike” drug warnings in the inpatient pharmacy, and implementing one single EMR across the organization instead of the three EMRs we were using at the time. I feel that these changes and the many others that occur across the country are making the medical field a better and safer environment for the patients, and I am happy to be a part of this effort.
I am very excited to join the many amazing medical students, nursing students, and faculty at the Telluride Experience. I believe that prevention and patient safety are two very important tenants of healthcare that we can improve, leading to better outcomes in our patients. This includes better communication with patients, improvements in the system of healthcare workflow, patient education, and more. I think my strong belief in this is what draws me toward primary care in medicine, with my front runner being Family Medicine at the moment. Through the Telluride Experience, I hope to gain much knowledge about patient safety and the appropriate steps we can take in our own communities to improve the atmosphere in which we live and work. I know that through the scheduled workshops and the
fellowship with the incredible students and faculty, I can gain the knowledge to make a change in my own
community and impact the people around me. I look forward to meeting and working with everyone, and it should be a life-changing experience! I thank you for selecting me for this opportunity and thank you in advance for all that is to happen in the coming week!