I just finished my first day at the Telluride Patient Safety Roundtable. What a great day! It's been really fun getting to know the other students as well as meeting faculty who have such passions for improving the delivery of health care.
Reflecting on today's conversation, I saw the connection between doctors and team captains. Doctors wear a lot of hats, we are scientists, surgeons, educators, shared-decision makers, advocates, managers, and team members. On the wards, doctors are in charge of large teams of care, ranging from residents, medical students, fellows, nurses, medical assistants, nutritionists...(the list goes on). It reminds me of being captain of the track team. Not only do I have my 7 events to perform and improve on, but I worry about the goals of the team, each individual teammate, ranging from freshman to seniors, injured, superstars, the 100m sprinter to the pole vaulter to the 10,000m runner. Team dynamics, coaches, trainers are all involved. As team captain you have some power, but you aren't the coach involved in everything, but you have a lot of influence. I wonder how we would approach training doctors if we approached them as team captains in training.
