She Brought Musicians Into the Operating Theater. Here's What Happened. Episode 168

What if the biggest threat to patient safety in your hospital isn't clinical error, but it's how your team treats each other?

Professor Catherine Crock, AM, hematologist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, spent 35 years asking that question and building something remarkable in response.

From bringing musicians into operating theaters and waiting rooms, to founding the Gathering of Kindness, a global movement to transform healthcare culture, this conversation will change how you think about kindness, safety, and what sustainable medicine actually looks like.

Timestamps:

1. 1:00: Sitting down with families to ask "what makes this harder?" and the surprising answers that changed everything

2. 8:00: Getting pushback on change and why a six week pilot is the best tool in your arsenal

3. 13:00: How music opened the door to talking about how staff were actually feeling

4. 19:00: The Churchill Fellowship revelation: the biggest patient safety risk is how we treat each other

5. 24:00: Theatrical plays about healthcare culture and what hundreds of audience responses revealed about the crisis in how we treat each other

6. 30:00: How a media launch turned one hospital music album into an international movement

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Kindness Isn't Soft, It's a Patient Safety Strategy: After traveling the world on a Churchill Fellowship studying patient safety, Catherine came to a striking realization: the biggest threat to patient safety is how healthcare workers treat each other. When staff are burned out, disrespected, or running on empty, patient centered care becomes almost impossible. Kindness to your team isn't a nice to have. It's the foundation everything else is built on.

2. Small Acts of Change Are More Powerful Than Big Overhauls: Whether it was staggering theater admission times, getting a pathology trolley to come to the oncology clinic, or starting each morning huddle with a safety story, Catherine's approach was always the same. Find the right person, propose a small pilot, tweak as you go. You don't need permission to start small.

3. A Culture of Kindness Lifts Everyone, Including Your Newest Team Members: When a grad nurse told Catherine she felt at her absolute best in their theater because she was welcomed, included, and given a role, it crystallized something important. Psychological safety isn't just good for staff retention and wellbeing. It unlocks performance. When people feel seen and valued, they show up differently, and so does the whole team around them.

Connect with Professor Catherine Crock, AM:

1. 🌐 hush.org.au

2. 🎵 Hush Foundation Music Program

3. 💙 Gathering of Kindness, Kindness in Action online program

4. 📱 Instagram 
5. 📱 Facebook

About Professor Catherine Crock, AM

Professor Catherine Crock, AM, is a hematologist at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, founder of the Hush Foundation, and creator of the Gathering of Kindness; a global movement to build health systems that are as kind to their staff as they are to their patients.

Would you like to view a transcript of this episode?  Click Here

**** Charting Champions is a premiere, lifetime access Physician only program that is helping Physicians get home with today's work done. All the proven tools, support and community you need to create time for your life outside of medicine.

Learn more at https://www.chartingcoach.ca

**** Enjoying this podcast? Please share it with someone who would benefit. Also, don’t forget to hit “follow” so you get all the new episodes as soon as they are released.

**** Come hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram. Follow me @chartingcoach to get more practical tools to help you create sustainable clinical medicine in your life.

**** Questions? Comments? Want to share how this podcast has helped you? Shoot me an email at admin@reachcareercoaching.ca. I would love to hear from you.