The Change

Theresa Zimanske is leading the Be The Change campaign by speaking, consulting and writing about her experiences and hopes for the world of health care. She continues to touch numerous people and groups, all in hopes of spreading the message that we can all Be The Change.

To learn more about her advocacy for change, visit her personal blog.

Hennepin County Medical Center Workshop Day April 2012

Leading the change at this family focused care workshop in April, 2012 was Sharon Denham from The Glen Taylor Nursing Institute.  Theresa talked about the Be The Change campaign as she shared her son Michael’s story along with their family story and gave glimpses of challenges and struggles  on the outside of their healthcare, which impacted every patient-family experience.

Minnesota Department of Health 2012 Minnesota Early Hearing Detection and Intervention/Birth Defects Conference

Theresa presented the Be The Change campaign to local Public Health staff in March, 2012.  She shared child, family, and nurse experiences in her real life examples of care coordination during her son Michael’s rare disease multiple specialty care with a focus on relationships and partnerships between patient, family, and healthcare provider.  Q&A followed this presentation and closed the conference.

Park Nicollet/Methodist Hospital Nursing Orientation – Family Perspective and Patient Experience

Each month, Theresa partners with Park Nicollet’s Orientation and Training Team. She shares real experiences and family perspective on her son’s end of life transition with recently-hired Methodist Hospital health care staff, as well as her clinic patient experiences with recently-hired Park Nicollet Clinic health care staff.  The patient family perspective is consistently present at Park Nicollet’s Orientation process creating health care relationships outside of medical crisis.

• Theresa was a member of the Park Nicollet Patient Provider Partnership Council (C.A.R.E.) from 2005-2007.

• Theresa was patient family representative for Park Nicollet Health Services at the Methodist Hospital 3P (Production Preparation Process) Workshop in September 2006.

• Theresa presented the Be The Change campaign to Park Nicollet Health Services Executive Leadership in October 2011. She shared her 25 years of  patient and family history with Park Nicollet Clinic and Methodist Hospital, including her vision for the patient and family perspective as health care consultant and partner to the provider perspective.

• Theresa presented Be The Change – ONE at Nursing Grand Rounds in February 2012.  A lunch time experience for nursing colleagues and patients to share their stories.

University of MN School of Nursing, Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs

Theresa presented to nursing and nurse practitioner students from the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2011.  The taped presentation is now available on the University of Minnesota web site, which offers web-based continuing education for health care providers. Click here to view this presentation about her real life medical and human experiences with her son, Michael, and his rare disease. Q & A followed the presentation, which served as another tool to educate through honest discussion between family members and medical providers.

Minnesota National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) Annual Spring Conference

As the keynote speaker at the conference in April 2011, Theresa shared the Be The Change campaign through her story about the change maker, her son, Michael, his rare disease and their family health care experiences.  This presentation included the impact of the sibling perspective.  Q &A followed the talk given by Theresa. Questions were directed to her as well as her daughter, Jessica Zimanske, Be The Change contributor.

Minnesota Physician Publishing, Inc. (MPP) 

Theresa authored a patient-family perspective article that was published in May 2011, uniting the human experience and the medical experience with special focus on rare disease.

Mayo Medical School College of Medicine

Theresa spoke to a large group of first-year medical students at the Mitchell Student Center in December 2010. She shared her son’s experiences as a little boy with a big rare disease and specific medical experiences that impacted the family surrounding him as the patient. Q & A followed the presentation, discussing ways to improve the patient, family and provider experience in future health care scenarios.  This demonstrated a need for this type of Q & A as an educational opportunity between medical students and the patient and family during their education.

Minnesota School of Business (MSB) Spring Health Forum

Theresa spoke at the MSB Nursing Program health forum in May 2010 sharing the Be The Change campaign to students and staff by speaking about her son’ s health care journey and giving examples of the unique relationship that is shared between patient, family member and health care provider and the impact of that relationship on the patient experience.

Dakota County Technical College (DCTC)

In May 2010, a classroom of nursing students heard Theresa share her story about her son, his rare disease and how it changed everything. She spoke on how health care students will Be The Change in health care by focusing on the relationship between patient, provider and family members.

College of Saint Benedict

Theresa spoke to nursing students in August 2010 with a focus on patient family centered care. She shared real life medical and human experiences about her son’s rare disease journey and the impact on the family, using specific personal examples of coordinated care and patient centered care and how it affected the life of her son and the whole family inside and outside the medical environment.