Wearing My IHI Blue Shirt Every Day

I couldn’t look away. I didn’t know what it was or where it came from, but I couldn’t look away. Was it someone’s sandwich wrapper? Perhaps it was a sheet of paper that someone was too lazy to toss? Either way, I had no choice.

I was compelled to pick a piece of dirty, white paper off the Orlando International Airport floor and throw it away.

You might be wondering why. (Or, you might not be very impressed: “Way to go, man. You picked up a piece of paper and threw it away. Do you want a medal?”) But it’s not so much that I picked it up. It’s why I picked it up.

And the reason can be summed up in five words: I’m an IHI Blue Shirt.

If you’ve ever been to an IHI National Forum, you’ve seen us. Flocks of us. We leave Boston’s Logan Airport by the dozens in early December – all of us bright-eyed, curious, and excited. We come home six days later – all of us bleary-eyed, content, and exhausted. The long hours in between are draining and intense. Sore feet, blisters, and sleep deprivation are more the rule than the exception.

Yet after my first experience in the blue polo shirts last week, it’s something I can’t wait to do again.

Let’s back up and define an IHI Blue Shirt. Technically speaking, we’re IHI staff members (mostly from our headquarters in Cambridge, MA), that come down to the National Forum and help make the 5,000-attendee event a success. More specifically, we run registration, check rooms, greet attendees, manage shuttle buses, create signs, maintain the staff office, provide first aid, dispense conference materials, communicate important updates to hotel staff, comprise the human wall during keynote sessions, and perform any other necessary job.

In short, IHI Blue Shirts exist to do one thing: Delight our National Forum attendees. Lost on your way to your session? Right this way, ma’am. Wondering what time the exhibit hall is open? It’s 11 - 2, sir. I hope you enjoy it. Think we can do something better next year? That’s a great idea. Let me share that feedback at tonight’s staff debrief. (And rest assured that we do discuss it!)

But I learned it’s more than just the simple tasks and extra assistance. It’s more than helping attendees wheel their luggage from one end of the hotel to the other. It’s more than walking more than 10 miles every day. It’s more than the 5 a.m. wakeups, countless paper cuts, and long stares at the gorgeous Florida sun (and glistening pools) through large hotel windows.

What is being an IHI Blue Shirt really all about? Simply put, it’s about going out of your way to help others. And the biggest life lesson I took away from my first week wearing an IHI Blue Shirt was that there’s no reason to ever take it off.

Even when the event ended at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, I wanted to help. I wanted to help clean up. I wanted to help people find the hotel lobby. I wanted to pick dirty pieces of paper off airport floors.

And in a moment of clarity (in between the hours of exhaustion), I realized that even though the experience lasts only one week each year, I should always “wear” my IHI Blue Shirt under my clothes. Why wouldn’t I hold doors, greet people with a smile, or point people in the right direction? Why wouldn’t I go out of my way to help others?

Come to think of it, what if we all wore our “Blue Shirts” every day? People would smile more. People would say “thank you” more. People would connect more. And maybe, just maybe, the world would be a better place.

I do, however, know one thing for sure: The floor of the Orlando International Airport would be cleaner.

- Mike Briddon, Managing Editor, IHI Open School

17 Days Until "One Day in the Life of a Patient"

Get your cameras ready for Wednesday, October 5!

This fall, to kick off the school year, the IHI Open School is launching a photo campaign to promote empathy, compassion, and patient- and family-centered care. Simply put, we want you to put yourself in the shoes of a patient for one day – Wednesday, October 5 – and take a picture. The images, which we hope to collect from around the world, can be sad, happy, funny, gross, ironic, silly, serious, or inspiring.

Many of the photos will be posted on the IHI Open School website and others will be used as part of a larger collage at IHI’s National Forum in Orlando in December.

In three easy steps:

1. Take a picture depicting the patient experience on October 5.

2. Write an email that includes your city/state/country and the time of day at which you took the photo.

3. Send the email to openschool@ihi.org.

To help get you in the spirit, we'll feature a new photo each day on our blog. Here is today's:

3:43 p.m. in Cambridge, MA, USA

Student Teams at the Forum

The IHI Open School team cares about maximizing the value you take away from the National Forum. This year we've incorporated student teams -- a new team-based approach, exclusively for IHI Open School attendees--into our programs. The student teams concept is our answer to a simple question: What are the habits of the world's best conference goers? How do the seasoned veterans leverage a few days' meeting into the knowledge, networking, and inspiration to fuel a year's worth of success in improving health care? It must take more than coffee.

The response has been terrific and we have 10 teams coming to the Forum! Each team is formed of 4-6 students and residents with a mix of professional and demographic factors. We'd like to thank all of you who will be participating in this unique experience. The student teams received their team assignments last week and were asked to develop their team's learning mission by making a comment at the end of this blog post. You'll be able to see what other teams are working on and hopefully find opportunities to collaborate while at the Forum. We've collected a set of best practices from other conference goers below.

How to optimize your IHI National Forum experience:

1. Active learning. With so much packed into three days, it's easy to miss a key insight in the blur of PowerPoints and plenaries. The best technique, we learned, is to think up questions well before the end of a talk. Keeping questions in mind throughout the conference, continuously searching for answers, and reflecting on daily lessons are key best practices of active learners.
   
2. Networking for collaboration. The knowledge to be gained at the Forum is world class, but it's called a meeting because that's what you're supposed to do! To make the most out of your experience, you'll want to be sure to meet the right people. You may find it difficult to find colleagues who share your interests in health care improvement at your school or institution, but student teams are designed to provide an immediate addition to your network of colleagues with common interests, and to provide a starting point for connecting with people you want to meet.
   
3. Connecting to core values. What makes the IHI National Forum so valuable is that improving health care is not just a specialty, it's a movement. Along with a list of great ideas and a stack of business cards, you leave with a sense of joy and excitement about the mission of improving health care that will carry you through the challenges of the year. The IHI Open School hopes that with the help of the student teams you will be going home at the end of the Forum energized and inspired. We hope that the Forum will be as much about learning what's new as rediscovering the core values that sparked your passions in the first place.

To our student teams: We're excited to see the results you come up with while at the Forum. Now's your chance to share your team's mission with the rest of the IHI Open School Community! Please share your team's mission in the comments section below.

See you in Orlando!

--Daniel Henderson

Student Events at the 22nd Annual IHI National Forum

The 22nd Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare is only a few weeks away! The IHI Open School team wants to make sure that you get the most out of your Forum experience that you possibly can. Read on to learn about the great student-focused events that will be taking place.

3rd Annual IHI Open School Chapter Congress

December 6, 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM

The Chapter Congress provides Chapters with an opportunity to come together, share their successes and challenges, and generate ideas for the new year. Chapter members will be able to meet other leaders in the community, share best practices, and build new skill sets. At this free, pre-conference event, Kate Hilton and Matt Lewis of Leading Change at Harvard University will lead us through the Story of Us and Now, and will review public narratives. Please review the IHI Open School Public Narrative Guide. This will be a great opportunity to meet and interact with IHI Open School Chapters!

Student, Faculty, & IHI Faculty Reception
December 6, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
The Faculty and Student reception will provide an opportunity for students and IHI National Forum faculty to network. Meet other students and faculty members and have a chance to make lasting connections.

Graduate Medical Education Interest Group Meeting
December 7, 7:00 AM - 7:45 AM
The IHI Open School is receiving overwhelming interest from the GME community. How can we use the IHI Open School courses to teach residents about improvement? How can we structure an improvement project during a one month rotation? Meet us in the Student Lounge (Tampa) to meet others in this group.

NEW! Student Dine Arounds

December 7, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Are you interested in creating a QI elective or course on your campus, strategic planning for your IHI Open School Chapter, or QI in the context of health reform? Discuss these topics over dinner with people who have similar interests. Sign up at the Forum and IHI will make a reservation for your group at a local restaurant.

IHI Open School Breakfast Session
December 8, 7:00 AM - 7:45 AM
Join the IHI Open School special interest breakfast session to hear from the Regional Chapter Leaders. In this interactive session, the Regional Chapter Leaders will lead a discussion about Chapter sustainability. Learn about successful Chapter fundraising, developing a Chapter constitution, Chapter leadership succession, and other sustainability issues that Chapters face.

Student Lounge
The Student Lounge is a place for students to meet during the Forum. Go to the student lounge (Tampa room) during breaks and lunch to meet up with other students and for the latest information.

NEW! Student Teams
For the first time, students have an opportunity to join student teams at the Forum. Student teams are interprofessional groups of 4-6 students with similar areas of interest who will meet up throughout the Forum. Check back for a blog post about the student teams in a few days!

Follow & Tweet with us at the Forum

Make the student and faculty presence known by tweeting with us at the Forum. Use the #IHI hashtag.

If you have any questions, please email the IHI Open School team.