Difficult Conversations Podcast

Lessons I Learned as an ICU Physician

Episode 171 | May 16, 2022

Communication IS Care with Jennifer George

Jennifer George

Award-Winning Author, Speaker, Podcast Host

Jennifer George

Welcome to Difficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini. Today, we have another incredible guest joining us that I know you’re going to love. Jennifer George is an award-winning author, speaker, podcast host, and compassion-focused physiotherapist, with a lot of experience in the private and public sectors of care. She became a caregiver to her chronically ill father and it was this personal experience of witnessing his journey through the healthcare system that shaped her professional practice. She has spent the last 14 years learning and reflecting on the importance of communication in our health and educational systems. Jennifer is the host of the Healthcare Provider Happy Hour Podcast and the author of Communication is Care: 9 Empowering Strategies to Guide Patient Healing. Jennifer is also a mentor to future and current health providers on discovering their purpose, achieving fulfillment, and creating an empowering patient experience.

As always we start off with Jennifer sharing her remarkable story about taking care of her ill father. We hear her journey of how she became a patient advocate, and how it blossomed into writing her book. Dr. Orsini talks more about how in healthcare, we tend to confuse the term communication with the term information. We discuss Jennifer's book in depth and her philosophy which sets the tone; - “In a lot of ways, my patients have lost their sense of identity. They have gone from living life on their terms to living life within the framework of the health care system.” Jennifer discusses in depth each of the 9 Empowering Strategies to Guide Patient Healing.

Dr. Orsini shares a funny story about his cousin who had to be savvy at a doctor’s office and tells us that Jennifer’s book reminds us that as a provider, you can make a difference and choose not to let any system or any pressure from the outside stop those special moments that you have with your patient. We end with Jennifer sharing the most difficult conversation she had in her life and advice on how she navigated through it.

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