This course is created by Shari Bookstaff, founder of Impact of Empathy, a marine biology professor, and survivor of brain surgery, stroke, paralysis, and long-term hospitalization. Shari has spent years on both sides of the healthcare experience — ❌ as a critically ill patient unable to speak, move, or breathe ✔️ and as an educator, teaching thousands of professionals how small actions dramatically change patient outcomes. Her real stories show exactly what helps patients feel safe — and what doesn’t. You’ll see empathy not as a theory, but as something patients feel instantly. Shari teaches healthcare professionals how small expressions of empathy transform patient safety, trust, and cooperation. Her unique perspective — combining years of teaching with lived experience as a critically ill patient — brings depth and authenticity rarely found in empathy training.