By Shauna Mazenes
Dowon Choi has never considered herself an innovator.
But a first-of-its-kind clinical nursing internship is giving her the chance to become one.
Dowon, a nurse on the Cancer Clinical Research Unit at UHN, spent six months embedded in UHN's Quality, Safety & Clinical Adoption Department, gaining hands-on skills and practical experience.
Now, she's applying those insights to her own unit — helping to cultivate a stronger culture of safety and continuous improvement within her team.
"To further improve quality and safety across an organization, we need to build capacity outside the central Quality & Safety Department," says Laura Pozzobon, Manager of Quality, Safety & Clinical Adoption at UHN, who led the creation of this learning opportunity.
"This internship was an innovative way for us to do that."
For Dowon, the role was a chance to develop leadership competencies and an understanding of key quality and safety principles.
She also helped build IRIS (Integrated Reporting for Improvement and Safety) — UHN's new patient safety event reporting system which launched in May 2025.
"Going into it, I really didn't know much about the [Quality, Safety & Clinical Adoption] department and what they did," says Dowon, who brought a valuable nursing and research perspective to the project.
"As a nurse, safety reporting has always been a part of my job, but I was curious to see what happened on the back end and what kind of action took place."
Now back on her unit, Dowon is guiding her team through the IRIS rollout while exploring its potential for research, workflow and data-driven improvements.
Laura first conceived the idea for a clinical nursing internship in her department after reading a previous UHN News story. The article highlighted two health informatics interns who helped bridge a gap in clinical care.
Given their experience with patients, Laura felt a nurse would be well-positioned to do the same, lending their expertise to support quality and safety initiatives underway at UHN.
"Nurses see the opportunities for improvement firsthand," says Laura. "Creating the spaces and pathways for nurses to develop these skills and see those improvements come to light is very important in building a healthier, more sustainable healthcare system."
In partnership with UHN's Collaborative Academic Practice (CAP), Laura and her team developed clear learning objectives for the internship that aligned with UHN's Nursing Strategy and leadership framework, as well as a national patient safety competency framework established by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, which is now known as Healthcare Excellence Canada.
"CAP is proud to support forward-thinking initiatives that empower nurses and other healthcare professionals to grow and lead through impactful collaborations such as this," says Karen Martin, Executive Director of Nursing and Health Professions Practice at UHN, who championed Laura's proposal.
"We commend Dowon for her pioneering spirit in helping bring this opportunity to life."
Together, the two departments thoughtfully designed the role to foster growth in key areas: building a culture of patient safety, driving quality improvement, supporting event reporting and learning, and making sound, data-informed decisions — all while grounding the experience in real-world patient safety work.
"It was about creating a space where a nurse could build quality and safety expertise, contribute meaningfully, then bring those learnings back to their team," says Laura.
And as a nurse herself, Laura understood the value of such an opportunity.
"Quality and safety work is a powerful avenue to advocate with patients and their families," she says.
It's a sentiment that resonates with many nurses — and one that can open doors to future career development.
For Dowon, it was more than quality improvement.
Over the course of her placement, she gained hands-on experience in project management, stakeholder engagement and data literacy. She learned to navigate resistance, collaborate across disciplines and appreciate the vast, interconnected ecosystem that is UHN.
Now back with her team, she's considered one of IRIS's "super-users." She already made a presentation on the system to her colleagues and is eager to hopefully use it to improve workflow processes and the overall practice on her unit.
"That's what I'm looking forward to using the most," she says. "With this knowledge, I feel much more equipped to make genuine and lasting impact."
Reflecting on her experience, Dowon says she now understands the "why" behind safety reporting.
What once felt like a routine task now feels like a vital part of patient advocacy.
She has also come to appreciate the importance of involving patients in the process, not just as subjects of care, but as partners in building a safer system.
"I have a new-found respect for quality improvement and all of the patient recommendations that come from it," she says.
Perhaps most importantly, it was a reminder that nurses — with their clinical insights and commitment to care — are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change.
And for Dowon, this is just the beginning.
She will begin her master of nursing in Health Systems Leadership and Administration at the University of Toronto this fall. She looks forward to continuing to build her passion for quality and safety and furthering her impact as a leader in patient care.
