What is Your Story?

Today concludes Patient and Family Centered Care Week (#PFCC2015). It was a week full of great events, webinars and presentations interlacing storytelling about how we care with how we learn from patients. Meetings started with people sharing patient stories, and everyone seemed to beat faster to the heart of our ultimate purpose: to care for our patients.

My story? As an operating room nurse, I cared for people in vulnerable moments. Surgeries are highly stressful for all patients, and one of my main goal was not only to care, but advocate for the patient while he/ she was unable to do so. You might say "we all advocate for our patients". But how do we do it? For me, it is a no-brainer: patient IS and always WILL come first. In the operating room environment, that can be challenging at times. It is a work environment with a strong culture and even bigger egos. If you are a novice nurse, that can be very intimidating - how would you speak up to a surgeon, demand the whole surgical team to stop and listen to a "Safe Surgical Checklist", or even refuse to proceed if your think the patient is unsafe? For me, it was always there, at the back of my mind: just like you would not accept any act of unsafe care on a loved one, you don't accept it for any patient.

Sometimes, it takes a small act of rebellion to stand up and talk for your patient. And as any act of rebellion, it stems from a strong desire to respect your own values. It is timely that we remember to stand up for our patients and for the families and share these stories. And this - this is my story.

#WhatsYourStory ?