The week has sped by, and it is now our last night in Marseille. I had been looking forward to this conference all summer – before I came, I thought this experience would be a great four days in a magnificently beautiful place, and I would come home enlightened on patient safety and quality improvement. While this turned out to be true, what I did not expect was for these four days to change my life. And yet – that is exactly what happened. This experience has forever changed the way I will practice medicine. I have heard stories that made my heart physically hurt, stories that made me sob in front of a classroom of people I had only known for two days. When these stories were shared, their owners were giving away parts of themselves so that we, as future caregivers, would learn from them and would act… Continue reading →

After just my first day in Marseille, I believe that the way I will care for my future patients is permanently altered. Whenever I find myself fatigued, stressed, overworked, or even bitter – as I know I am bound to on certain days as a practicing physician – I want to remind myself of this conference and what I learned here. I am surrounded by individuals who are passionate about learning how to practice safe medicine, how to be conscientious caregivers, and how to put their patients’ needs before all else. The most jarring part of the first day was a documentary that we watched on the life of Lewis Blackman. A 15-year-old boy was allowed to die in a hospital because no one thought to go against the status quo. His mother stated that if he were anywhere else but in a hospital, he would still be alive today… Continue reading →