In experience, every voice matters, and each of those individual voices are contributing to an ocean of ripples that are positively impacting countless lives. In experience, no one organization owns, nor should claim to own all the answers, but many contribute to the possibilities found in elevating the human experience in healthcare. In experience, when we ensure this is a true strategic focus at the heart of healthcare we will find our way to achieving all the outcomes we aspire to achieve and know are possible in healthcare. This issue helps frame that reality through contributions from around the world touching on a broad range of topics, but yet in their distinction, find a powerful commonality, a commitment to the humanity of healthcare. If we reframe the conversation on patient experience to one that is about all we aspire to achieve, about how every role matters, every voice contributes, every perspective brings value and seasoning to an ever expanding mix of possibility, than what we can do in healthcare is boundless. A conversation on experience is not tangential to this opportunity we face, rather it rest squarely at its core and it is incumbent on each and every one of us to contribute. That may be our greatest opportunity in a global healthcare system where access and equity, quality and safety, empathy and compassion and health and well-being are not just what we do as work, but the fundamental reality of all do as human beings caring for human beings.
This special issue on patient & family experience in children's hospitals and pediatric care underlines pediatrics' position as a leader in the experience journey. In pediatrics and children's hospitals significant efforts are made to the ensure the environment is welcoming and comfortable, there is a commitment to communicating to patients-the children that are cared for-in a way they can understand, and there is a clear intention of engaging family members as an integral part of the care experience. In acknowledging that this is a special issue on pediatrics, we would miss a significant opportunity if we were not to look for and find the lessons that can be applied across healthcare settings. It is this capacity to transcend boundaries in which true experience improvement will be realized.
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