Former Mind & Life Institute president Susan Bauer-Wu delivers URI College of Nursing Fall Distinguished Lecture
Creating “safe and high functioning healthcare environments…where heart and humanness are valued and embodied” is the original vision of the Compassionate Care Center, and a goal for all healthcare professionals and organizations, according to the center’s former director, Susan Bauer-Wu, who delivered the URI College of Nursing’s annual Fall Distinguished Lecture on Oct. 21.
Bauer-Wu presented her lecture, “Mindful and Transformative Leadership: Creating Cultures of Well-being in Health Care and Academia” in room 308 of the RINEC, 350 Eddy St., Providence. The internationally respected author and leader in healthcare and contemplative science urges nurses and other healthcare professionals to to establish cultures of well-being in medical facilities, for the benefit of patient care and healthcare professionals themselves. She urges nurses to take small, even momentary pauses throughout the day to be their best selves for their patients, their colleagues, and themselves.
“Being more mindful helps us see more clearly, and better discern what is the right thing to do,” Bauer-Wu said. “Mindfulness allows us to hold suffering —our own and others… not clenching resisting or running away. It allows us to soften our experience with clarity, calm, and healthy acceptance.”
Bauer-Wu is past president of the Mind & Life Institute, an organization co-founded by the Dalai Lama to bring science and contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind, foster dialogue, and create positive change in the world. She is also an NIH-funded clinical scientist, Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar, and early teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Bauer-Wu, who was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and served as president and on the board of the Society for Integrative Oncology, has held leadership positions and taught at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Emory University, and the University of Virginia. At UVA, she was an endowed professor in contemplative end-of-life care and director of the Compassionate Care Initiative with dual faculty appointments in nursing and religious studies.
A reception in the Riverview Lounge on the third floor preceded the lecture, giving attendees the opportunity to interact with Bauer-Wu.
The URI College of Nursing hosts its Distinguished Lecture Series each semester. Past lectures have been delivered by Paul Farmer, famed founder of the global health initiative Partners in Health; former American Nurses Association President Ernest Grant; Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research Shannon Zenk, and Seattle University College of Nursing Dean Emerita Kristen Swanson, among others.
