Tiffany Christensen is Sick Girl Speaks 

Below are some of Tiffany's more commonly seen presentations along with the description. Please note that every presentation is custom designed for your audience and event.

Tiffany is commonly asked to speak at a variety of events within one health system over a series of 1-3 days.

Tiffany works full time at Duke Hospital making it important for her to limit her speaking engagements each year so please try to book as far in advace as possible.

If you wish to learn more about Tiffany's presentations, fee scales or availabilities, please call or email us today.

Every presentation Tiffany gives is tailored to her specific audience. To help you decide if Tiffany's presentations might be right for you, we have provided this listing of themes and topics to get you started. You may also want to look through Tiffany's extended bio to get an idea of her background and be sure to contact us to set up a time to talk to Tiffany on the phone about your upcoming event or needs. Presentations are always evolving and, if you're looking for a patient speaker or a workshop leader/facilitator, chances are you've come to the right place.

Please note the list of common discussion points have a lot overlap for both audiences.

CV and references available upon request.

Tiffany's primary presentations: 

"Partnering with Patients: A Bed's Eye View of Safety"

In "Partnering with Patients: A Bed's Eye View of Safety," Tiffany Christensen uses her extensive patient history as a backdrop to weave together themes of partnership, patient safety and patient satisfaction. By embracing the four principles of patient and family centered care, participants will expand the possibilities of decreasing medical error through partnership with concrete strategies born from TeamSTEPPS tools. Attendees will be inspired by this speaker's story and motivated to implement new partnership techniques within their own practice.

"Partnering with Ptients: A Bed's Eye View of PFCC"

Using the 4 guiding principals of Patient and Family Centered Care, Christensen uses her story as a backdrop to explore the world of a patient navigating our complicated healthcare systems. Christensen will break down the myths and misconceptions about PFCC and inspire participants to embrace the concepts and take action.  

"The Patient's Voice: Developing your PAC"

Now a professional patient advocate and a leader in the field of patient advisory councils, Ms. Christensen will guide attendees on how to hear and use the patient story in a whole new way. Using her expeience with the Duke Health System Patient Advisory Councils, Christensen is able to address the "nuts and bolts" of creating and sustaining a patient advisory council while highlighting the goals and benefits.

"Knock 'em Dead: Talking about Talking in Public"

As a speaker who has told her story thousands of times, Christensen shares her lessons on how to make the greatest impact when using a personal story to inspire and motivate change.

"Life in the Deathbed"

Join Tiffany in her retelling of her journey through two terminal illnesses, coming to terms with end of life and her unexpected reprieve!

"Caring for You, Caring for Me."

This presentation can be done in a one, two or three hour format.
 
Throughout the one, two or three hour presentations, Tiffany  tells her story while highlighting the role of nurses in healthcare. The two hour program also includes poignant but fun improv exercises exploring communicating with "difficult" patients. The three hour program allows participants time for more self care and exercises that allow room to reflect on past patients and the lessons learned from caring for the sick.

"Living and Thriving with CF"

In this presentation--reserved only for CF providors, patients with CF and loved ones of people with CF--Tiffany expplores childhood fears created by misinformation and lack of information, the rebellion of the teens and how CF impacted it, and growing into an adult with a clear understanding of purpose. In this presentation, Tiffany challenges participants to open to the possibility that CF has just as many gifts as it does challenges. How do you define "personal value" in your household? It may change after this presentation!

A small sampling of where Tiffany presented in the past:

Johns Hopkins Grand Rounds and Leadership Roundtable

Beryl Institute for the Patient Experience National Conference

Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care International Conference

Christiana Care Health System PFCC Conference

Duke Leadership PFCC workshop

NATCO Conference for Transplant Professionals

Cystic Fibrosis Research Inst., Redwood City, CA

13th Annual National Patient Safety Foundation

Madigan Army Medical Center

Rex Hospital Guild Nurse Recognition Day

CF Education Day, Portland OR

SHCA Professional Patient Advocate Conference

CBFNC Chaplain Conference

UNC Medical Students Capstone Course

Respiratory Therapists, "Clearing the Air" workshop

Sutter Hospice, Co-Taught w/ Isa Stenzel Byrnes, San Mateo, CA

I enjoyed the presentation so much and feel so much more prepared for compassionate nursing.  I cannot thank you enough for sharing your story and personal insight with us.  Sometimes it takes hearing a story like yours to appreciate the gift of health and the importance nurses have in maintaining and promoting that.  Thank you!

--"Finding Your Voice as a Caring Professional" Audience Member

For Healthcare Professionals and Students

Most Common Audiences/Venues Include:

• Grand Rounds or Professional In-Services
• Healthcare-Related Conferences (local and national)
• Patient Safety Events
• Schools and Programs for Healthcare Students

Additional Presentation Titles Include:

• Being Patient: A Patient/Caregiver Improv
• Finding Your Voice as a Caring Professional
• Growing Up Dying: Shifting the Pediatric Patient Paradigm
• Chronic Emergency: The ED Through the Eyes of a Lifelong Patient

Common Discussion Points Include:

• Gratitude for healthcare professionals and why
• What Patients are Facing: The State of Patient Safety and how professionals can help
• Patients become their own Safety Officers
• The difficult patient: Who are they and what do they want?
• The Gift of Advance Care Planning
• Looking at Chronic and Terminal Illness through a Child's Eyes
• Using The Power of Illness and Dying to enhance your own life
• The Death Bed Myth
• What is an effective patient advocate?
• How you and proactive patients/family members can work well together
•  Western Medicine and Alternative Medicine: The Compliment not the Conflict
•  Death is not a failure
• More than just a body—The mind/body/soul differentiation
• The delicate nature of relationships with family and friends when facing illness
• The Opportunities of Illness
• Healing vs. Medicating

For Patients, Families and the Community

 Most Common Audience Members Include:

• Those with chronic or serious illness
• Retirement Home Residents
• People who love someone with illness
• Proactive people who want to be empowered

 Frequent Presentation Tittles Include:

• Finding Your Voice in the Healthcare Maze
• Train the Trainer: 1.5 Day Certification Program to teach Finding Your Voice in the Healthcare Maze
• Patient to Patient: Getting Real about Advance Care Planning
• Life in the Deathbed: Finding Peace no Matter What
• Patient Advocacy and You

Common Discussion Points Include:

• Patient Advocacy
• Patient Safety
• Strategic Advance Care Planning
• Understanding organ/eye/tissue donation
• Meditation and other coping techniques
• Illness and God: Are we being punished?
• The vulnerability of illness
• The importance of peace for patients and how to create it
• The Illness Identity Crisis
• Healing vs. Medicating
• Allowing help: Why it’s good for you and the ones you love
• Your unique “journaling”
• Illness and complicated family dynamics
• You are more than just a body (The mind/body/soul differentiation)

I’m truly amazed at how vital the information you shared is, and somewhat disappointed to realize that if not for this workshop I would be one of the many who are completely unaware of these tools needed to navigate the healthcare system – and many other systems for that matter.  I’ve shared what I’ve learned with a handful of relatives and close friends, and I hope to continue sharing what I have learned with those around me. 

Your story as well is what strikes me as the most intriguing part of the workshop.  That alone helped me to learn so much more, and I wouldn’t change a thing about how you presented. 

--"Train the Trainer" Participant