Learning how to make a difference

I think my biggest accomplishment from working at SHM is the knowledge I have acquired over the past few months about quality initiatives in general. When I first applied for the job, I'll be honest, I really had no idea what "quality initiatives" even were. For those of you who might not know, quality initiatives are basically initatives developed to improve quality of patient care and reduce the risk of medical errors. Medical errors happen all the time but many of them can easily be prevented. Our quality department works to not only develop these initatives with teams of highly knowledgeable and experienced medical professionals from all over the country, but also develops programs that help institutions to implement these changes and track their progress. Since I have been here, I have learned so much that I really believe will help me to be a better nurse in the future. I've been able to learn the most about medication reconciliation, reducing the rate of readmissions, glycemic control (aka diabetes managment), and venous thromboembolisms (reducing chances of blood clots). All of which are absolutely things I will come across frequently working as a nurse. Being able to learn how mistakes are made and how to prevent these mistakes from happening will ultimately help me to provide patients with the highest quality of care and maybe even help me to save some lives.

A bit off topic -- but if you are interested, this video is the story behind a new project that our department will be a part of soon called Partnership for Patients and is an example of how awesome and important the stuff that we do is. If this is not something to brag about in future interviews, I don't know what is..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak_5X66V5Ms