Nurse here! This keeps popping into my mind, keeps leaving me drawing a blank. Healthcare is a massive and resource-devouring industry, but is stuffed with people who actually give a shit about the people around them: the industry is a good candidate for improvement, and the people in it are likely to actually embrace those improvements (well, barring the odd salty af mofo who loses their shit at the first signs of change, but that person’s in every industry - they’ll figure it out eventually.)
I work in a run-of-the-mill hospital in the US, which encourages staff to take on system improvement projects, and these are were I see potential - especially for new nurses gunning for promotions.
The problem is what and how. All I can think of are things like recycling programs to tackle medical waste, but (at my facility at least) the waste that isn’t already being recycled is either biohazardous or risks becoming biohazardous (like medication waste is huge, but we can’t save half a vial of unused injection due to the possibility of that being contaminated by the first needle that drew from it).
So, looking for project ideas, both that I can start to implement myself, or to suggest to other staff looking to polish their resume. Smaller scale stuff is great for newer nurses; big scale stuff I can throw at management and see what sticks.
Let me know if you think of anything! Thanks all!
My mom works in a care home for seniors and one thing she’s done is asked residents about their entertainment needs and tried to bring in book/magazines that they like to stock the rec room. Probably not super useful at a regular hospital with more temporary stays.
In my area someone also organizes community care days for our unhoused populations. These consist in recruiting a bunch of local people willing to share their skills (haircuts, vaccines, medical consultation, painting nails, grooming or medical attention for pets, etc). They also rent mobile shower units. Since you can’t just go into the park and practice medicine by yourself the medical staff for these events come through a local non-profit that has done the necessary paperwork for insurance and stuff. These events sometimes draw people who are hesitant to visit the hospital for various reasons but would like to ask about a medical issue they’ve been experiencing.
I’ll try to think of more things. I agree the industry has tons of people who care deeply about other people and who would love to improve conditions (both for patients and workers).