Announcer (2s):
Welcome to Difficult Conversations: Lessons I Learned as an ICU Physician with Dr. Anthony Orsini. Dr.
Orsini is a practicing physician and the President and CEO of the Orsini Way. As a frequent keynote speaker
and author, Dr Orsini has been training healthcare professionals and business leaders how to navigate
through the most difficult dialogues. Each week, you will hear inspiring interviews with experts in their field
who tell their story and provide practical advice on how to effectively communicate. Whether you are a
doctor faced with giving a patient bad news, a business leader who wants to get the most out of his or her
team members or someone who just wants to learn to communicate better This is the podcast for you.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (47s):
Well I’m honored today that The Orsini Way has partnered with the Finley project to bring you this episode of
Difficult Conversations Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician. The Finley project is a nonprofit organization
committed to providing care for mothers who have experienced the unimaginable, the loss of an infant. It
was created by their founder. Noelle Moore who’s sweet daughter Finley died in 2013. It was at that time that
Noelle realized that there was a large gap between leaving the hospital without your baby and the time when
you get home. That led her to start the Finley project. The Finley project is the nation’s only seven part
holistic program that helps mothers after infant loss, by supporting them physically and emotionally, they
provide such things as mental health counseling, funeral arrangements, support, grocery gift cards,
professional house cleaning, professional massage therapy, and support group placement.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (1m 41s):
The Finley project has helped hundreds of women across the country. And I can tell you that I have seen
personally how the Finley project has literally saved the lives of mothers who lost their infant. If you’re
interested in learning more or referring a family or donating to this amazing cause, please go to the Finley
project.org. The Finley project believes that no family should walk out of a hospital without support. Well,
welcome to another episode of Difficult Conversations: Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician. I am Dr.
Anthony Orsini and I am delighted to be here with you again this week. This can be a very difficult time of
year for many, and I don’t believe that anyone would disagree with me when I say that 2020 has been a
particularly bad year for everyone.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (2m 26s):
There seems to be sadness everywhere. The COVID-19 crisis has affected everything. Almost 2 million
people have died worldwide. And then another 65 million people affected as of this month. Hospital workers
have been overworked, overwhelmed, and businesses shut down. People across our nation have lost their
jobs and can’t pay their bills. In an often overlooked aspect of the COVID-19 crisis is the number of people
who have died from cancer or heart disease, stroke, and other illnesses because routine health care
screenings were postponed. But for many who have lost loved ones in the past, this has been a sad season
year after year.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (3m 6s):
And that’s why on this episode, I chose not to have a guest, but rather spend just a few minutes talking
about this podcast and show my gratitude to the many guests that I’ve had on and the larger audience that
has been listening each and every week. I can’t believe that it’s already my 23rd Podcast Episode. We
launched our first three episodes on August 4th of this year with two amazing guests and my introductory
podcast. And here we are in a flash of the week before Christmas, when I started the podcast, I don’t mind
telling you that it was really nervous. I thought, what if no one listens? What if I can’t find guests, what if I fall
flat on my face and just sound ridiculous.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (3m 49s):
But to my pleasant surprise, in the first two weeks of the podcast at the Apple, top 100 in medicine going as
low as number seven and the top 200 for health and wellness. Week after week, I’ve been able to somehow
convince the most amazing people to come on to share their incredible stories, inspire my audience and
share their knowledge about various Difficult Conversations. For me, this has been an awesome experience.
I get to meet people that I thought I would never get to know. And now I call them friends. And just like those
of you are listening. I learn something each and every episode. You know when I first got the idea of having
this podcast, several of my friends said to me, why are you interviewing people who weren’t in the health
care field?
Dr. Anthony Orsini (4m 36s):
My answer was that this podcast is about effective and compassionate communication. And it doesn’t matter
if you’re a physician, a nurse, a business leader, or an HR professional, or just someone who wants to
communicate better with your spouse, your child, your teenager, and even your boss. Good communication
builds trusting relationships and is the keystone to everything that we do. And so I went on a search to find
the best guests that I can find to the best of my ability. Alternate, the weeks from healthcare to business. I
started with Kathy Caprino a Forbes writer, a top 100 Podcast to herself and author of the book The most
powerful You.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (5m 19s):
Kathy shared her wisdom and coaching tips for women who want to be more empowered in business and
gave incredible tips. Kathy’s Episode has been downloaded almost 1000 times and remains the most
downloaded episode. We also heard from Marcus Engle, who shared his incredible journey of his tragic car
accident that caused him to be instantly blind and how a nursing assistant held his hand and got him through
the trauma simply by saying the words “I am here”. And together, we heard more amazing and inspiring
stories. In episode four, Noelle Moore told her inspiring story of how she tragically lost her baby at birth.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (6m 2s):
And now Noelle runs a charity, helping mothers who lost a child get through the unimaginable sadness. And
then Episode 17 Debbie Haine shares or a story of stillbirth and how she turned that around to make a
difference in how hospitals around the country handle a stillbirth babies. These are incredible stories of
tragedy and triumph. And perhaps in my favorite episode, episode 11, I interview, my niece Lauren who tells
her story of how she went from a childhood cancer survivor to a registered nurse, treating kids with cancer
all by the age of 24. These are amazing people with incredible stories of strength, resilience, and hearts,
bigger than mountains.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (6m 47s):
People will make you feel better than knowing what they went through and pushing us to go forward no
matter what. As the Dalai Lama said, “tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength”. I also had some
incredible guests who have inspired us and made us believe that business leadership is not just about the
bottom line, but about people, guests such as Claude Silver from VaynerMedia James Orsini from The
Sasha Group showed us really how people should be treated. Holly O’Driscoll, Anne Bahr Thompson and
Stephen Covey talked about trust and relationships and how a true leaders lead and how the culture of the
business means everything.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (7m 27s):
These people made me feel really optimistic about the future of business. Now I’ve said before healthcare is
broken, we all know that, and I discussed their problems with health care and the solution’s in my book, It’s
all in the Delivery. But after interviewing people, such as Dr. Michelle Neier who treats pediatric cancer
patients, and Jason Wolf the President of the Beryl Institute who works tirelessly to improve the patient
experience I am optimistic about health care as well. I was also delighted to have Dr. Dike Drummond, who
was addressing the real crisis of physician and nurse burnout in medicine and Dr. Helen Riess who proves
to us in her book that empathy can be taught and is contagious.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (8m 11s):
And just a few weeks ago, I interviewed the incredible Quint Studer who was really an icon in health care
leadership and patient experience. So in closing, I understand that these are difficult times, and I hope that in
a small way, this podcast and the work that I do with The Orsini Way has inspired all of us to come to realize
how many incredible people are out there who have magnificent hearts. This podcast has made me believe
more than ever that the future is bright and the sky is the limit for all of us. In the coming months I will
continue to have inspiring guests and talk about how great things come from relationships and how our
relationships start with communication.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (8m 56s):
So in closing, I’d like to wish everyone who is listening a happy holiday season, and I hope you will continue
to listen as we all look forward to a much better 2021. Happy holidays. Well, before we leave, I wanna thank
you for listening to this episode of Difficult Conversations: Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician and I want
to thank the Finley project for being such an amazing organization. Please everyone who’s listening to this
episode, go ahead visit the Finley project.org, see the amazing things they are doing. I’ve seen this
organization literally saved the lives of others who lost infants. So to find out more, go to the Finley
project.org.
Dr. Anthony Orsini (9m 37s):
Thank you. And I will see you again on Tuesday.
Announcer (9m 40s):
If you enjoyed this contest, please hit the subscribe button and leave a comment and review. To contact Dr.
Orsini and his team, or to suggest guests for a future podcast, visit us at The Orsini Way.Com.
