7,877 pledges were made for Change Day BC 2015. Here are the stories behind some of them:
Ben Ridout on His Pledge to Talk About Mental Health
Contributed by Ben Ridout, BCPSQC. Ben talks about his pledge to #GETLOUD about his mental health and the impact of his pledge. How did you feel about sharing the story behind your Change Day pledge? I wrote out my story at home late at night, and the next morning I woke up with a panic, like, do I really want this to go out to everyone? So it was scary to put it out there, but as soon as I saw it online, it was very empowering to me because it was out of my hands now. It was done,…
Helen Chiu on Her Affirmative, Person- Centred Pledges
Contributed by Helen Chiu, BC Provincial Renal Agency and the Nephrology Research Office. Helen was kind enough to chat with us about how her virtual, multisite workplace managed to build Change Day momentum and develop their team culture through a group pledge. You were very involved in spearheading Change Day at the BC Renal Agency. How did you end up in that role? I went to the 2015 Quality Forum, which is where Change Day was launched, so that’s where I heard about it. It made sense to me— it was very exciting, because everyone can do it, and it starts…
Rebecca Sovdi on her Pledge to Learn from Her Colleagues
Contributed by Rebecca Sovdi, First Nations Health Authority. Rebecca’s pledge was “to honour the vast knowledge around her and to learn something new every day.” We found her pledge inspiring and think you’ll agree. Can you tell us how you chose your pledge ? First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) is undergoing a significant transformation process, and has grown substantially over the past couple of years. It’s really neat to realize as we grow and expand that every single person—whether they worked with FNHA as a small and growing organization, came from the government, worked at the community level, or came from a…
Getting 10,000 Steps a Day with Pat Owen
Contributed by Pat Owen, Quality Forum 2015 Steering Committee. Pat was asked to be one of the first people to make a pledge for Change Day. As a result, she has been acting on her pledge to get 10,000 steps a day since February! Below, she shares how she stays motivated and committed to fitting in daily physical activity. Tell us how you chose your pledge. It wasn’t a hard pledge to decide on because as a diabetic I need to walk. My pledge was 10,000 steps a day. We’ve lived here [in Kamloops] a long time, 40 plus years, and I’ve got all…
Tiffany and Ryan, Patient Navigation Team, Burnaby Hospital
Contributed by Tiffany Ng, RN, and Ryan MacKay, Burnaby Hospital. Their creative and engaging efforts to bring Change Day to the staff of Burnaby Hospital led to 210 pledges- one of the highest pledge counts for a single organization! How long have you been at Burnaby Hospital? Tiffany: I’ve been a registered nurse here for about five and a half years. Ryan: I’ve been working here for about seven years. Tiffany: And we became a part of the Patient Navigation Team in September, and we were in charge of taking Change Day off the ground. What does the Patient Navigation Team do?…
Rory Allen, Strategic Program Planning, Island Health
Contributed by Rory Allen, Island Health. What do you do here at Island Health? I’m part of the planning department. We provide both medium and long term planning for the organization, and we work with the Ministry of Health a lot on making sure that Island Health’s accountability plans and reports are aligned with Ministry direction, up to date, and show what we’re doing and where we’re going as an organization. And my role specifically and the other folks in the Strategic Program Planning side of things, we work on special projects that come up- things like business cases for…
Val Janz, Interior Community Services
Contributed by Val Janz, Interior Community Services. As an organization with workers who face a lot of stress on the job, Val encouraged her employees to take care of each other through their pledges, and inspired their clients to do the same. Read on to learn more. Why did you make a pledge? I thought it was really cool- we’re always looking for ways to engage our staff. And in our organization, we specifically focused on pledges around culture and a positive environment. We didn’t focus specifically on the client services, because we felt that good work happens more naturally when…
Rita Den Otter, Executive Director of Experiences, Island Health
Contributed by Rita Den Otter, Island Health. What do you do at Island Health? I’m the Executive Director of Experience. My role is to develop the strategy and action plans for improving the experience of our providers, which includes our staff, physicians, volunteers, and learners, as well as the experience of our patients. Our belief is that by reconnecting Island Health employees with that spirit of why they began working in health care, then that spirit will make a difference in the experience that they have with our patients and our communities. What led you to get involved in Change…
