Rachel Westlake was a teenage kid with long, curly, red hair when she was diagnosed with large cell lymphoma at the age of 15. During more than a year of experimental treatment protocols, Rachel began to understand her own mortality, something none of her peers had any concerns about whatsoever. She beat the cancer and learned the importance of self-advocacy along the way. In 2015, she received another cancer diagnosis while living in a “healthcare desert.” Using her acquired self-advocacy skills, Rachel called on her old oncology team in NY. She got them on board, underwent a stem cell transplant, and beat cancer for the second time.

Today, Rachel is a dedicated health care advocate focused on creating compassionate, personalized, and inclusive care systems. As a self-advocacy expert and educator, she assists organizations in implementing patient-centered strategies to enhance care outcomes and foster collaborative cultures. She’s also an instrumental force behind CHCAO, the Coalition of Healthcare Advocacy Organizations.

Listen in as Rachel walks listeners through her highly personal medical and emotional journey that includes beating cancer twice and confronting the death of her father by suicide. Rachel’s life experiences gave her the courage and strength to identify others who needed help, and she was inspired to help as many as possible. Rachel discovered the profession of healthcare advocacy and dove in, realizing the impact she could have as a BCPA.

Through Rachel Westlake Consulting, LLC (RWC), she specializes in self-advocacy education, connecting patients, healthcare professionals, and industry stakeholders. Her background in coalition leadership, startup strategy, product development, and research informs her balanced, partnership-driven approach to addressing patient and healthcare community needs.

On this episode, we talk with Nan Wetherhorn, a South Florida Independent Patient Advocate and nurse since 1976, who learned the importance of advocacy during her mom’s battle with cancer. Nan’s mom was a pharmacist and was more than capable of understanding her diagnosis and her treatment options. But patients can rarely effectively advocate for themselves, so Nan was the one who discussed all the health issues with her mom and her doctor. She became a part of the "team" as do most family members.

As an Intensive Care Unit nurse for more than 30 years, and with experience in pediatric and adult patients in cardiac care, neurology, surgery, and trauma, her mission today is to provide education, resources, and tools so patients can make educated, informed decisions about their healthcare. Nan’s robust clinical background makes it easy for her to participate in discussions with health care providers and relay complicated medical information to her clients in a clear, simple, comprehensive language they can easily understand.

Nan traveled the world as nurse well before the concept of travel nursing was commonplace. From neonatal ICU nursing in Switzerland to positions in France and North Africa, Nan has experienced many different approaches to healthcare and patient safety around the globe. Those experiences helped shape her perspective, making her an amazing ally for patients and families in head of healthcare guidance and support.

Listen in as we sit down with Karen Curtiss, a Board-Certified Patient Advocate whose journey into patient advocacy started with her quest for a lung transplant to save her dad's life. Karen was working in advertising and marketing at the time, but she dropped everything to advocate for her dad who was near death from pulmonary fibrosis and beyond the transplant cut-off age in most hospitals. Karen was relentless in her determination to get her father’s medical records to the #1 transplant facility in the world, convincing them that her dad was the ideal candidate for the lifesaving lung transplant he received at age 72. But everything took a turn for the worse when inadequate hospital safety measures resulted in her father’s passing.

Since then, Karen has been on a quest to help other patients and families access and navigate our complicated health care system for the care they need. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Care Partner Project, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that develops and implements evidence-based tools and resources for both families and providers in order to support safe care practices and prevent harm in hospital settings.

Karen is a respected patient advocate and patient safety leader, and her story has inspired countless advocates, healthcare clinicians, hospitals, and policy leaders. Her strong track record of collaborating with other health care leaders and innovators including The Patient Safety Movement Foundation and as a study advisor at Harvard Medical School makes her a compelling and knowledgeable voice for the profession. Don’t miss this engaging and informative interview with one of the premier leaders in Independent Patient Advocacy and patient safety.