I am attending Telluride because an RN working on her DNP saw my genuine interest in quality and took me under her wing. She first took me to our school’s IHI meetings.
I was familiar with IHI for the Open School but as a new RN (back then!) didn’t have any idea about the real clock-work behind quality within the healthcare system. Fast forward to today, I am a DNP student and the co-leader for our school’s IHI chapter as well as the nursing educator for my work unit at the hospital. Many of the medical students at IHI meetings talked about their experiences last year at Telluride and how invaluable it was to their practice and career trajectory. After reading the prep books, I can see what all the fuss is about!
Patient safety is integral to good patient care because medicine and technology have changed tremendously and involve a certain level of transparency that requires us to be better stewards of our patient’s health. Trust is no longer a given and the word of a physician is no longer taken as infallible command. As a result, we must strive to truly do no harm and to enrich our patient’s lives by giving them back their health in whatever way we can. I think this is especially true for providers such as myself who are trained as advanced practice nurses and have not attended medical school but have a plethora of other training and experience to offer our patients. I hope to one day be the QI/QA for our Veterans. Dare to dream!
Elizabeth Lester, MSN, RN, CMSRN
DNP Student at UVA