The oasis is often recognized as a critical milestone and safe zone along an austere and barren route. To travel deserts without the incidence of a viable oasis was essentially certain death. Sometimes in healthcare, the landscape and trajectory of our professional careers begins to resemble a sojourn through difficult terrain, hopefully punctuated with spots of salvation and rest. I stated today in our reflection session that I desire to renew hope and trust. I stated so as I have begun to become disillusioned with American healthcare and it’s potential future state. I am less hopeful at times because I perceive it as a decaying institution, terribly expensive, inefficient and dangerous in application. Most frighteningly, as a complicit associate of American healthcare, I am compelled to look inward and account for my own misguidance in action and the remedial opportunities I never sought. As a nurse, have I ever participated in an action that ultimately harmed a patient? Yes. As a nurse manager, was it easier to execute disciplinary action at times than to construct a performance improvement plan? Yes. Have I displayed a hardened and nasty general comportment in my conduct towards others in the hospital from time to time? Yes. Therefore, I have played a role in facilitating the deterioration of a profession I once held dear. As such, I have arrived at event horizon for change. I indicated a need for trust and hope to restore a failing confidence in a system so critically necessary to the sustainment of public health and our future as citizens. I am hopeful tonight that my experiences here at Telluride will serve as an oasis for me to renew the foundations of my own practice and to be the change I desire to see in the world, however small that scope may be.
