I will be defending my dissertation on Emotion-Symbolic Work in Community College Pre-Health Science Students on August 8th. The dissertation includes a video on healthcare waste, as well as a llnk to this site as a potential NPO to use in future emotion-symbolic work. The seed for the idea to start CACHW was planted early in my dissertation process and has now grown to include this website. It is my hope that soon the organization will gain a board of directors and be incorporated as an NPO.

What does that mean for you? Well, if you are here and are interested in becoming a board member, please reach out: shellley.mitchell@cahcw.org. If you’re just here to hang out, that’s fine–I intend to write blog posts more often in the future, especially as I will no longer be working on my dissertation (I will be back at work, though, in a new job, for the fall semester, after over a year of a sabbatical combined with time off).

Please reach out as well if you have any ideas about where you’d like this organization to go and what you’d like us to focus on. Should we start small, with a local campaign against plastic medication cups, for example? Do you know of a grant we should pursue? Should we partner with any larger organizations, such as the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment (AHNE)? What are your ideas for how we can reduce or eliminate forms of healthcare waste, including single-use plastics? Feel free to drop a comment here or send an email. We’ve started with this little website, but it’s my belief we can go far!