Healthcare Keynote Speaker – Next level quality of care: a patients' testimony

As a keynote speaker, I present at thirty to forty events each year on topics ranging from navigating change to setting impossible goals. I have to say though that the strongest connection I feel with an audience is when I get to share my patients story as a healthcare speaker with people that do the work that you do; those of you in healthcare. I’ve seen firsthand what you do. I’ve been there, on the receiving end.

I’d never been in hospital before until that night, after being rescued off of the side of a remote mountain, when I was wheeled on a stretcher into your world. Ten days in intensive care; a month in the first hospital, then seven months of rehabilitation; learning how to live as a double above knee amputee…

I know that what you do makes a difference, and I’ve got some ideas and some thoughts to share with you through my patients testimony for those times when I think you forget that you make a difference. I’ve put together a presentation especially for you, as someone who deals with situations of consequence on a daily basis, to remind you of the importance of the work you do; of the difference you make.

Key Takeaways

• Validation of the importance for the role you play. You make a difference!
• Strategies to improve the quality of care you deliver.
• The importance of perception in your role in healthcare, both in how you see your patients and how you see yourself.

Expected Outcomes

The big picture aim of this presentation is to validate the importance of the work you do; whether you’re a front line practitioner or clinician; a caregiver or caseworker or a hospital administrator. Second to that is to share an example of the results we can achieve in our quality of care when we adopt a client centred (or patient centred) approach or model. When we partner with our patients to achieve a common goal.

I have to share with you a great keynote speaker for your next major conference. His name is Warren Macdonald and we had him at our Annual Meeting August 22. He was very inspiring and you could have heard a pin drop in the room, as everyone was thoroughly engaged and hanging on his every word. At a time when home care is facing such dramatic changes in the health care delivery design and reimbursement, people can easily become overwhelmed.

Anita Bradberry
Executive Director / Texas Association for Home Care

You could hear a pin drop for the entire length of your one hour presentation. Your ability to connect with an audience and hold their attention is something that I have never experienced with a Guest speaker before. The Key message our people needed to hear, and you delivered, was that change is inevitable; we can't change that. What we can change is our response to that change, and I want to thank you once again for reinforcing that message for us that it is up to all of us, individually, to see change as an opportunity rather than something to be feared.

Andy Kahrmann
Business Unit Manager, PIE and AVS / London Drugs

As administrators and government push the buttons and pull the strings, healthcare workers face the fallout everyday for themselves, their patients (hospital) and their clients (home care). It is easy to start to feel sorry for ourselves. Warren's story represents someone who really could feel sorry for himself but instead has pulled himself up (literally) to excel at living a meaningful and productive life. His story is awe inspiring and reminds healthcare workers that they are in a position to help/hinder others, including, most importantly, themselves. Personally, Warren's story helps me to maintain my belief in the human spirit that exists in each one of us and a hope that if I am faced with what appears to be insurmountable odds, I too can rise.

Joan Park
Board Director and Conference Chair / Ontario Case Management Association

“Warren was able to convey that healthcare workers who saw him as a person first and not as a patient, really made the biggest difference in his rehabilitation. One employee was not interested in attending the assembly and just wanted to do her job and go home. However, her manager insisted she attend. After hearing Warren’s miraculous story, the employee was moved to tears and felt her life had been forever-changed!”

Natasha Milatovich
VP, HR / White Memorial Medical Center