Stories about improving the lives of healthcare professionals, patients, and families.

Health Information Technology Can Enable Organizational Resilience

Clinical and operational systems in hospitals push out notifications about patient care events: a patient is deteriorating; a patient is about to fall; a patient has pressed the…

“There’s no place like home.” This famed Wizard of Oz adage rings true when talking about healing. Research shows that the best place for many patients to heal and receive care is at home. It allows patients to rest in their own bed, eat their own food, have everyday caretakers and loved ones…

Even under the most ideal conditions, childbirth is inherently stressful and extremely emotional — for the baby as well as the parents and family. That’s only natural. But what if the unexpected happens? What if the newborn experiences complications and is transferred to a neonatal intensive…

Let’s face it — patients have a lot to say about their healthcare experience and rightfully so. While you may not always want to hear the feedback — positive, negative, or indifferent — it’s crucial to listen to ensure incremental and long-term improvements to the patient experience. It’s also a…

July 30, 2021, marks 22 years of celebrating System Administrator Appreciation Day, a day to honor the folks who work meticulously to keep systems up and running, solve problems, and prevent disasters.

Healthcare system administrators, or sys admins, are the backbone that enables…

When I donned my white coat and took the Hippocratic Oath to “First Do No Harm,” I would leave for work every day and pray that I didn’t hurt anyone that day. My biggest fear was that some decision or action on my part would cause harm to my patients. Never did I have to worry that my own safety…

Over the past year, as we’ve all seen how nurses impact the health and healing of our world, we’ve also seen them embrace the mantra “Never Again” and leave the profession at unprecedented rate.

The need for change is clear. We must heed the call from all corners to listen to, support,…

Sandy Traynor is a Workplace Relations Manager and Stevie Christopher, RPN, is an Information and Communications Technology System Analyst at Niagara Health, a 949-bed, multi-site hospital organization in Ontario, Canada.

Recently, in the emergency department (ED)…

My daughter is a nurse at a major medical center. Throughout the pandemic, she has been redeployed a few times. First, from her regular job to managing a COVID-19 testing site, then to managing an emergency department surge tent, and now, managing vaccination sites in addition to her standard…

In December of 2019, 17 weeks earlier than expected, my husband and I welcomed our twins, Vivienne and Margot. We were told by doctors and nurses that the journey in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for 22 and 23 weekers would be very difficult – for the babies and for us. Thankfully, for…