So here I am, after four packed, but informative and enjoyable days, at the Baltimore Airport waiting for my flight home. I can’t help but reflect on not only the valuable presentations, lectures, and activities from which I learned during my time at the Maryland/DC session, but also the camaraderie and collaboration between the attendees. And I’ve realized–all the “extra” stuff we did during these past four days, from the icebreaker night to group dinners to our DC outing, really allowed for a productive environment. Having gotten to know and befriend my fellow attendees made it all the more easy and fun to discuss the various topics that were covered during our session. I think such was a great example of one of the overarching themes of the conference: that mutual trust, good communication, and openness make a system (e.g. a healthcare institution) function better. And how exactly did we, the session attendees, develop such after only a few days together? You guessed it–all the “extra” stuff. All in all, what I’m trying to say is that this conference in itself proved the effectiveness of a strategy of building camaraderie, which I think can apply, and which I hope to apply, in my work in the healthcare field.
