Sustaining Healthy Work Environments

Dean Dorrie K. Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN, the Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor, and associate chief nursing officer at UVA Medical Center, has led University of Virginia School of Nursing since 2008 and been a tireless champion of interprofessional education, purposeful instruction in compassion, empathy and mindfulness, and the driver of the School’s expansive diversity and inclusion initiative.
Founder of UVA’s Compassionate Care Initiative in 2009, Fontaine – a long-time critical care and trauma nurse with a distinguished record of leadership at the nation’s top nursing schools – remains a sought-after speaker, lecturing on the criticality of teaching resilience, mindfulness and compassion to students and veteran clinicians alike. Widely published in scholarly journals and in the lay media alike, Fontaine is a fierce advocate for healthy work environments and the prioritization of clinician well-being.
During this session, the importance of a healthy work environment will be discussed using standards developed by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) but universally applicable to work settings everywhere. Challenges to creating positive environments are identified including incivility with specific leadership strategies to restore and create more joy in work emphasized.