Improving Quality of Care and Investing in Local Talent through Summer Student Placement
As a part of Stevenson Memorial Hospital’s commitment to investing in the community and providing young people with meaningful opportunities, the hospital has hired Sydney Harris to work over the summer as the Quality Improvement Lead. In her role, Sydney will be implementing several quality improvement initiatives connected to priorities outlined in the recently released 2018 – 2022 Strategic Plan.
“Working with the Quality Improvement Team has taught me to be objective about a problem and analyse the process to find the opportunities to improve,” said Sydney. “I am enjoying working with departments and staff that I normally wouldn’t get to as part of a clinical placement. Through interviewing them I have a better appreciation for how much they give to their jobs.”
Sydney is a fourth year nursing student at York University and was hired under the Canada Summer Jobs program. In addition to supporting the hospital’s quality improvement projects, she is being trained in Lean Six Sigma Green and Yellow Belt methodologies at SMH.
“Having Sydney as a part of our team allows us to move forward on the priorities outlined in our strategic plan while supporting a young nursing student in understanding how lean is applied in health care,” explains Carrie Jeffreys, Vice-President and Chief Nursing Executive. “We know that quality patient care can be delivered through a better understanding of data and we’re constantly striving to set a new standard of care based on that information.”
“It’s amazing to see young talent like Sydney take an interest in her community hospital!” said Jody Levac, President and CEO. “We want to continue to attract the best talent, from students to seasoned professionals, and that means ensuring that we build a facility we can all be proud of. We need the continued support of our community to make a redeveloped Stevenson Memorial Hospital a reality.”
