Children and Youth as the Future, with Bruce Squires, President of McMaster Children’s Hospital

Healthcare Change Makers

Today we’re talking with Bruce Squires, President of McMaster Children’s Hospital and Vice President, Women’s and Children’s Health at Hamilton Health Sciences.

In this episode, we talk to Bruce about preventable harm and his approach to turning the corner on patient safety. Bruce says it’s important to be explicit when talking about harm, sharing a realistic picture with clinical leads and teams.

Like many leaders, Bruce is focused on health human resources. He speaks to the need to build immersive learning environments, where staff have the tools and support from leaders to identify opportunities and act on them.

Bruce also speaks to the impact of COVID-19 on children and youth, describing it as disruptive and tragic. The measures imposed to keep our kids safe affected their physical, mental, and emotional health – effects that are most concerning for vulnerable children and youth.

But Bruce is ultimately optimistic. In looking to the next chapter of children’s health, he believes the dialogue should be driven by the voices of children, youth and families – they are our future.

Quotables

“If you're going to focus on safety as a healthcare priority, you have to name it and you truly have to prioritize that. You need to make it the core mandate.” – BS

“I think wherever I've seen kind of breakthrough performance, it's where the organization has made that explicit commitment to improving safety performance… to driving to zero harm.” – BS

“There's lots of things that you can do outside… but if you don't have at its core a frontline situation, a day-to-day at the worksite sense of an element of control over your own work, and an opportunity to improve, then it's not going to be healthy and it's not going to support learning.”

“These kids and their importance in recovery needs to be prioritized.” – BS

Mentioned in this Episode:

McMaster Children’s Hospital

Hamilton Health Sciences

Children’s Healthcare Canada

Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)

Canadian Medical Association

Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association (NLMA)

Ontario College of Family Physicians

Mount Allison University

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