This December (Dec 2025), our Executive Director was an invited speaker to come back and give two presentations at the Citizen CPR Foundation’s, Cardiac Arrest Survival Summit in Phoenix, AZ. This program draws a world-wide audience of not only experts in the resuscitation field, but survivors of cardiac arrest from a multitude of causes.
Our first presentation, “Wellness and Resiliency: Improving Self-Care”, was explored in a round table format which allowed us to delve deeper into the topic. Defining what wellness and resiliency mean from both a personal and organizational perspective was explored. Many suggestions were discussed as well as identifying potential barriers to plan implementation. Case examples of success stories, barriers encountered, and problem solving strategies were highlighted.
Our second presentation, “Delivering Bad News: Can We Do Better?”, focused on a frequent part of medical care that many have not been adequately trained in. Studies show that people often remember vividly the moment they receive bad news, especially if it has a highly emotional impact. Often people find themselves being the person to share this type of news as they are the only one available to do so. While this may have been past practice by many, we have learned so much in this area to improve our skills and techniques in doing so. This presentation explored some of the types of bad news, suggested best practices on how to deliver bad news, the potential impact on both the receiver of and deliverer of the news, and suggestions on how to make these challenging scenarios more efficient and minimizing the secondary impact of this type of news.
It is always an honor to be invited back as a speaker to this event and to be able to present on topics such as these. The awareness of this group to seek out education in these non-traditional areas shows the expansion in our thought process to deliver the best holistic care we possibly can and not just what we might consider “traditional medical approaches”. Encompassing a Mind-Body-Spirit approach allows us to deliver a better experience, often under very challenging circumstances, to those that we serve.
To learn more about this group please visit: https://citizencpr.org