Living & Working Mindfully: Exploring Mindfulness Techniques For Self-Care, Leadership & Nursing Practice
Dawn Bazarko
This stimulating presentation will explore how modern day stress and our difficulty with focusing attention “in the now” impact our health, personal and professional effectiveness and overall quality of life.
Course Details
Overview
Mindfulness, the practice of being fully present in each moment, has been scientifically demonstrated to enhance the function and neural networks of the brain, resulting in improved focus and concentration, enhanced performance and overall health improvement. It is also a self-care practice that helps lower stress, strengthen resiliency and cultivates the ability to respond consciously instead of reactively – or out of autopilot. Many health care organizations are implementing mindfulness programs to address the unmet self-care needs of nurses to enhance their well-being and build a high-performing, engaged workforce.
This stimulating presentation will explore how modern day stress and our difficulty with focusing attention “in the now” impact our health, personal and professional effectiveness and overall quality of life. The speaker will explain what mindfulness is, what it is not and overview how it can improve nurses’ health and productivity through a review of some of the recent research - providing insights into the science of mindfulness. We will also explore how mindfulness can enhance leadership skills, strengthen emotional intelligence and enhance nursing practice.
Participants will directly experience a variety of simple practices aimed at strengthening attention regulation, engaging the relaxation response, enhancing self-awareness, building positive emotion, and cultivating the ability to connect more deeply with self and others. The presentation method will include use of a PowerPoint presentation, practice demonstration and opportunity for repeat demonstration, reflection, and Q&A discussion.
Key Learning Outcomes
- Describe the impact of stress and distraction on health, well-being and performance.
- Discuss how mindfulness techniques can lower anxiety, enhance emotional intelligence, strengthen resiliency, cultivate compassion and empathy, and enhance overall well-being and professional effectiveness.
- Demonstrate formal and informal mindfulness-based practices.
- Appraise methods for incorporating mindfulness and other mindfulness-based self-care techniques into professional work and home life.
Presented by
Dawn Bazarko
DNP, MPH, RN, FAAN
Dr. Bazarko is the founder and leader of Moment Health, an innovative new UnitedHealth Group business focused on bringing mindfulness solutions to the work place, to health care workers and into health care delivery to improve the care experience. Over the past 9 years, she has been a driving force behind cultivating mindfulness practices in the workplace, offering mindfulness meditation and mindfulness-based stress reduction programs to employees and leaders of major organizations via in-person, telephonic and drop-in formats. She is increasingly seen as an expert in the science of the mindfulness and methods for bringing mindfulness practices into health care and business environments and best practices in mindfulness measurement and evaluation.
Bazarko is a seasoned business leader demonstrating conviction and passion in all that she does. She has served in a variety of leadership roles at UnitedHealth Group including clinical innovation, delivery system reform and most recently the creation of UnitedHealth Group’s Center for Nursing Advancement.
A Registered Nurse, Dr. Bazarko also holds a Master’s in Public Health- specializing in environmental and occupational health; and a Doctor of Nursing Practice, both from the University of Minnesota. She holds several certifications and recognitions in mindfulness facilitation including: Certified Mindfulness Facilitator from the Mindful Awareness Research Center, UCLA; Level I Certification in Mindfulness-Based Chronic Pain Management from the Neuro Nova Centre, Toronto, CA; and Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher in Training through UCSD. In recognition of her contributions to the field of nursing, she was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.