Overview

Our Mission and Vision

The Kindness Coalition (TKC) is an organization and quality improvement initiative dedicated to fostering kindness and collaboration among healthcare workers (HCWs). We aim to facilitate an inclusive, collaborative working environment where HCWs across all professions and departments work together as a cohesive team to provide high-quality patient care.

The Problem We Are Solving

Burnout remains a major national concern among HCWs, contributing to emotional exhaustion, reduced professional fulfillment, and workforce attrition. In 2020, diminishing burnout became a top priority for the U.S. Surgeon General.

Key Contributors to Burnout:

  • Social isolation and lack of peer support.

  • Systemic stressors resulting from working in a system where HCWs are stretched thin, with limited flexibility and autonomy. 

  • Barriers in healthcare culture that prevent open communication and community.

These factors create environments where collaborative teamwork and kind behavior can falter, worsening burnout and impacting patient care. We believe that promoting kind behavior through positive feedback can help build community, reduce social isolation, and improve collaboration and resilience among HCWs.

 

The Kindness Coalition’s Solution

The TKC initiative, first implemented in October 2023, is a quality improvement initiative built upon four core components:

 

  • A novel Kindness Recognition Form (KRF), accessible via QR codes, allows HCWs to easily identify colleagues whose kindness has positively impacted them. The recognized HCW receives a personal thank you email with their supervisors included.
  • TKC events bring together HCWs across professions and departments to discuss the value of kindness and approaches to kind behavior. The events include shared food and the distribution of TKC pins to serve as conversation starters on and physical reminders.
  • Kindness advocates are HCWs who invest in modeling kind behavior and building a culture of collaboration.
  • The communication platform via WhatsApp provides continuity between events and helps to build community around the shared goal of promoting a culture of kindness and collaboration.

Our Progress Thus Far

National Presentations

  • Oral Presentation at the American Conference on Physician Health
  • Poster presentations at American College of Physicians (ACP) National Conference, New Orleans 
  • Lean Healthcare Conference 

 

Awards

  • Best QI Poster, ACP Northern California Regional Conference 

 

Stanford Features

Leadership Team

Executive Team Members

  • Prerak Juthani, MD, MBA (Hospitalist, Stanford; Co-Founder)
  • Amity Eliaz, MD, MS (Neurology Resident, Department of Neurology, UCSF; Co-Founder)
  • Hayley Galitzer, MD (Hospitalist, Stanford)

Stanford 500P and 300P Leadership Team

  • Kerrie Ward, MD
  • De’Mond Glynn, MD
  • Tamara Scott, DBA
  • Stephanie Chen, MHA

Tri-Valley Leadership Team

  • Suky Sangha DNP, RN, NPD-BC, CMSRN
  • Joe Carlucci, MBA
  • Anna Fernandez-Perera
  • Anita Petagara
  • Jessica Parkyn, PA
  • Ken Wolter

Faculty Advisors

  • Poonam Hosamani, MD (500P, 300P Stanford)
  • Jason Hom, MD (500P, 300P Stanford)
  • Evelyn Bin Ling, MD (Stanford Tri-Valley)

Key Partners

  • Lisa Jafari, RN, PCM (F3)
  • Casey Jasmin, RN, PCM, MSN (G1)
  • Theresa Shea, BSN, RN, OCN (ITA)
  • Judy Berry-Price, MSN, RN, BMTCN (ITA)
  • Annabel Palomino, (ITA)
  • Lisa Shieh, MD (QI, CSRP)
  • David Svec, MD, MBA (QI, CSRP)
  • Dale Beatty, DNP, RN (Nursing Leadership)
  • Alexandra Brown, BSN, RN
  • Charlene Chen, MSN, RN
  • Jordan Chavez, LCSW

Executive Sponsors

  • Neera Ahuja, MD
  • Alpa Vyas, MHA

  • Monica Davila, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CNOR

Join the Kindness Movement

If you’re a healthcare worker interested in building a more compassionate and collaborative workplace, we’d love to connect.

Contact us:

 

Follow TKC on social media for updates, stories, and upcoming events.

TKC Gallery