The morning was spent in the trip to Arlington Cemetery. Going on trip with colleagues is a very different feeling from going on trip with families or usual friends. The trip actually provided a chance for us to talk over things that we would not cover in the conference room, such as a bit more personal life about ourselves. I appreciate that the conference has brought together people with so much diverse background, which could be inspirational to the others.
The afternoon started in the discussion of SBAR style communication. I had no experience watching professionals in my university hospital exactly using this, neither was this mentioned frequently in our courses, at least not in our pharmacy courses. From people’s discussion I realized that this “technique” has been much more emphasized than what I thought. This can be a good point to note and observe when I get back to school.
The highlight of today was root cause analysis workshop. I was designated by our facilitator Dr. Roger to play the role of risk manager to lead the discussion. Oh my god… I totally lacked the experience to play the role. I even had not comb my thinking flow well within such short time after reading the case, let alone to lead the conversation for others… There were teammates demonstrating much more experience than me, from which I learned that there is a long way to go before I can really play a good leadership role in this area. This is critical to know. Before the Telluride meeting, I thought everyone would be at the similar level, at least I would not imagine myself that far behind since I was on our school’s Enhanced Medical Training Track on Patient Safety and Clinical Quality. The first time I realized the reality is not like this was in the first day’s ice-breaker—-some people has already got years of practice experience to back up their knowledge in safety and quality issue while I am still kind of green…… now the impression strikes me the second time, reminding and stimulating myself to keep moving forward.
The most thought-provoking part of the day was Dr. Mayer’s lecture on transparency. What the elements of transparency are, what the barriers and benefits are, what actual outcomes of those stories are. I am particularly interested in and admired their story on this issue at early stage, when transparency was quite not yet advocated as a trend, when culture change was more difficult. It takes vision, belief and courage to be a pioneer, it also takes strategy, patience, and supports from friends. How “rich” the person should be before he/she deserves the reputation of “pioneer”! Facing these pioneers these days, one more thing I have learned is humility.