Hayley Finch-Genschorck
- Health Care Expert: 10+ years in health care education and professional development.
- Patient Advocate: Brings powerful lived experience navigating the health care system.
- Communication Champion: Advocates for compassionate, clear, family-centered care.
Hayley Finch-Genschorck Speaker Biography
With more than 10 years of experience in health care education, Hayley Finch-Genschorck has led statewide conferences, workshops, and professional development programs. She brings both professional expertise and personal insight to conversations about medical harm, patient advocacy and the critical role of communication in health care.
After her mother’s sacroplasty procedure resulted in a tragic outcome, Hayley transformed her family’s experience into a powerful teaching tool highlighting how the words spoken in moments of crisis are often remembered long after the clinical details fade. Through storytelling and practical insight, she helps health care professionals understand the lasting impact of honesty, empathy, and transparency when outcomes are not what anyone hoped for.
Hayley is also the mother of two children with medical diagnoses, navigating the health care system daily as both a professional and a parent advocate. This lived experience fuels her passion for clear communication, compassionate care, and family-centered advocacy. Through her work, she seeks to inspire health care professionals to respond with empathy, courage, and accountability ensuring patients and families feel heard, supported and respected during their most difficult moments.
Book this SpeakerSpeech Topics
Beyond the Procedure: The Words Families Remember
When a medical procedure goes wrong, the harm experienced by patients and families is not only physical, it is shaped by what clinicians say in the aftermath. Hayley Finch-Genschorck draws upon her experiences and the story of her mother and beloved Nana, a breast cancer patient whose sacroplasty procedure went tragically wrong, leaving her “cemented flat” and robbed of her independence. While the clinical complication was devastating, what remains most vivid are the words that were spoken and those left unsaid by her care team.
This session explores the crucial role of timely communication in the wake of medical harm, offering clinicians a framework for responding with honesty, empathy, and responsibility. Using both professional insights and lived experience, participants will learn how families remember words long after procedures are complete, and how clinicians can help or hinder healing with the way they disclose complications. Through storytelling, practical examples, and actionable guidance, participants will come away better equipped to navigate difficult conversations, avoid harmful phrases, and deliver compassionate care that honors patients and families as people, not just cases.
Learning Objectives:
• Describe key components of effective communication following a medical complication.
• Identify positive and negative phrases and communication approaches.
• Recognize how compassionate and honest communication can preserve trust.
Target Audience: Hospital clinicians, physicians, nurses, patient safety officers, risk and quality managers and hospital administrators.
At the Bedside: The Nurse’s Role in Patient and Family Experience
This session explores how nursing communication and bedside behaviors shape the patient and family experience throughout hospitalization. Using a patient and family story, guided through the emotional, informational, and safety-related challenges families face when navigating complex care. The presentation highlights how nurses serve as consistent, trusted anchors during times of uncertainty and how small moments of communication can significantly influence trust, understanding, and perceived safety.
Rather than focusing on clinical procedures, this session emphasizes the relational and communication-based aspects of nursing practice that are essential to high-quality, patient-centered care. Students will examine real-life examples of both supportive and missed opportunities at the bedside and reflect on how their future actions can promote compassion, advocacy, and psychological safety for patients and families.
The session encourages students to view patient experience not as a separate initiative, but as a core component of professional nursing practice that directly impacts outcomes, safety, and ethical care delivery.
Learning Objectives
Describe how nursing communication influences patient and family perceptions of care, safety, and trust.
Recognize common emotional and informational needs of patients and families during hospitalization.
Identify bedside nursing behaviors that support patient- and family-centered care.
Explain the nurse’s role in escalation when concerns arise.
Apply practical communication strategies to improve patient and family experience in clinical settings.
Target Audience: Nursing students in clinical training programs, new graduate nurses, and nurse residency participants.
