Difficult Conversations Podcast

Lessons I Learned as an ICU Physician

Episode 179 | October 31, 2022

There's a Snake on My Head

Mindy Spigel

Speaker, Consultant and Coach

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Welcome to Difficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini. My guest today, is Mindy Spigel. Mindy has dedicated her career to improving healthcare and helping patients get over their fears of the system. She has a master’s degree in nursing, has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and has taught in both academic and clinical fields. Her passion is helping people create meaningful connections as a leader and team member while providing the best care. She enjoys helping leaders build strong teams in exceptional work environments. It’s her desire to alleviate fears, build trust, and create an exceptional experience for all. Mindy has been honored to have presented at numerous national, state, and local conferences, she recently published a research study on the “Fears of Parents When Their Child is a Patient, and she just released her first book, There’s a Snake on My Head! Strategies for Alleviating Fear and Anxiety in Healthcare, which we are going to be talking about today.

Mindy tells us about her journey and what gave her a passion for patient experience. She expresses why she’s been a very big advocate for shared decision making and asking the team how can we make this work? We hear about the inspiration behind the title of her book, There’s a Snake on My Head! Strategies For Alleviating Fear and Anxiety in Healthcare. Dr. . Mindy and Dr Orsini discuss why it is such a big mistake when hospitals try to t way to improve patient experience is treating hospitals like hotels. She tells us about things she learned in her research about what people are afraid of. In her book, Mindy talks about Five Relieving Strategies, and the first one is build a relationship. It’s about finding commonality, and Dr. Orsini talks about how we could find commonality in just about everyone. Mindy explains her second strategy which is, choose your words carefully. She shares an aha moment story. In part two of her book, Mindy talks about how healthcare team members are people too and she explains more about this. Also, we find out what prompted Mindy to write her book, what she hopes will understand after reading the book. Mindy talks about what she is currently doing and her hopes for the coming months in her career. We end with Mindy telling us the most difficult type of conversation she’s had, and advice on how she navigated through it.

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