The Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Advisory Board聽of聽the聽平特五不中 Nursing Collaborative聽hosted a special webinar Health and Healing for Nurses During COVID-19聽presented by Roshi Joan Halifax on October 29th, 2020.
The webinar brought together nurses, nursing students, and faculty members from the Ingram School of Nursing, the Jewish General Hospital, 平特五不中 Health Centre, and CIUSSS de l'Ouest de l'脦le de Montr茅al聽to reflect on healing and compassion in the context of the COVID-19聽pandemic.
Roshi Joan offered frameworks to consider how nurses can cultivate resilience amidst聽conditions聽brought on by the pandemic聽that undermine morale and challenge the capacity of healthcare workers. She explored the nature and role of compassion, both in providing care and in sustaining ourselves and maintaining our integrity and capacity to care; as well as the difference between compassion and empathy and how this distinction can be used to cope with the empathic distress often discussed as 鈥渃ompassion fatigue鈥�. With explanations of types of moral suffering and their causes, and practical tools for self-regulation grounded in an honest view of the current healthcare environment, Roshi鈥檚 teaching was聽supportive, challenging, and timely.
鈥淩eflect on what brought you into the path of nursing. One of the most important things that we can do, as [we] face unanticipated challenges, is to remember why. Do not lose this thread. This is the thread of integrity.鈥�
We are pleased to share a recording of the webinar, in the hopes that it will provide more nurses with an opportunity to reflect on their own health and healing and that of their聽patients, families, and healthcare teams.聽聽
About the presenter:
Roshi Joan Halifax is Abbot of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the context of healthcare, she is best-known for her work surrounding death and dying. She is the founder of the Being With Dying program, a practical training program for healthcare providers in compassionate end-of-life care, providing 鈥渒nowledge and skills in the psychosocial, ethical, existential, and spiritual aspects of illness and dying鈥�, as well as tools for the self-care and resilience of clinicians. Her August 2020 program 鈥淏eing With Suffering鈥� offered support for clinicians to sustain their practice while also confronting the burnout, moral distress, and unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic. Roshi Halifax has been a social activist since the mid-1960's, beginning with the Civil Rights Movement and the movement against the Vietnam War. In her younger years, she was an anthropologist, doing field work in Africa and the Americas. She is author of numerous books including聽The Human Encounter with Death,聽Being with Dying, and聽Standing at the Edge.