We all know how busy life can get.

Somedays, it feels as though we're more than just busy – we're overworked, exhausted, pushed to our limits. For the thousands of care providers in this country, I'm sure you can relate.

Unfortunately, in spite of all the best practices in the world, this hectic, never-ending pace can lead to some pretty significant errors in care.

So we're left with a simple question that doesn't have a simple answer: how do we get back to the basics? How do we get back to simple?

Every year around this time, Bell puts the mental health conversation on the national stage with their Let's Talk campaign. The main goal of the campaign is to end the stigma surrounding mental health issues and to raise money for mental health organizations. I think it serves as a great opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of good mental health, something that can very easily be put in jeopardy by the busyness of the world that pulls us in so many directions at once.

Unfortunately, we can't all live in the woods by Walden Pond like American poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. One of Thoreau's most famous quotes is, "Our life is frittered away by detail . . . simplify, simplify."

It's a wonderful sentiment, and one that we should strive to emulate, sometimes just a few small changes can give some really positive results.

Perhaps it's as easy as taking the time to say hello to a colleague, or taking someone out for coffee, where you can converse about anything but work. These brief moments of escape from the pressures and complexities of our daily lives could go a long way towards regaining some simplicity.

What do you think? What do you need to get back to simple? How can your organization support you?

Send me some of your thoughts and I'll share some helpful ideas with you in next month's Power Play.

Email me at cpower@cpsi-icsp.ca

Yours in patient safety,
Chris Power