Grief in Nursing: From Patient Care to Personal Wellness
Grief is a familiar part of nursing, but its impact on nurses themselves often goes unrecognized. How can we better support nurses in navigating their own grief while also strengthening the grief-sensitive care they provide to patients and families?
This webinar brings together three nursing professionals whose experiences span geriatrics and long-term care, pediatric critical care, and hospice, palliative, and serious illness care:
- Janice Whitaker, M.Ed., BSN, RN, CDP, Administrator, Education Program Manager, and Community Liaison, Tressa Nese and Helen Diskevich Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing
- Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN, Pediatric ICU Nurse, Children's Hospital Los Angeles
- Katherine (Katie) Doebler, BSN, RN, CHPN, Supportive Care Case Manager, DaVita Integrated Kidney Care
Together, they will explore what grief literacy looks like in nursing practice, including the impact of repeated loss, professional grief, and the importance of peer and workplace support. The discussion will also offer practical strategies for promoting personal well-being and fostering workplace cultures where nurses have space to grieve, reflect, and care for themselves as well as others.
Presenters:
Katie Doebler BSN, RN, CHPN, Supportive Care Case Manager, DaVita Integrated Kidney Care
Katie brings extensive clinical expertise in serious illness accompaniment, medical ethics, and specialized grief and bereavement care within a nursing scope. She currently works as aSupportive Care Case Manager for DaVita, drawing on two decades of foundational experience in hospice, palliative care, advance care planning and renal nursing. Driven by the conviction that nurses possess unique, high-level skill in navigating grief and loss, her practice is further informed by specialized experience in peer support and education at the intersection of personal loss and grief within healthcare environments. To deepen this integrative advocacy, she is currently training in the Existential Health Practitioner program through the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality, backed by advanced training in grief and trauma-informed care. As a young widow, she blends this rigorous clinical framework with profound lived experience, driving her commitment to advancing grief-sensitive healthcare delivery and grief-informed support for all healthcare professionals.
Hui-Wen (Alina) Sato, MSN, MPH, RN, CCRN, Pediatric ICU Nurse at Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Hui-wen has been a pediatric ICU nurse at CHLA since 2010. She blogs regularly for the American Journal of Nursing (AJN) in their blog, Off the Charts. Her writing has also been published in the Oxford Handbook of Meaningful Work, The Healer's Burden, The Intima, as well as the Reflections column for AJN. In September 2017, she delivered a TEDxTalk titled "How Grief Can Enable Nurses to Endure," which was promoted to the main TED.com page in 2020 as "How Grief Helped Me Become a Better Caregiver." She has been featured as a keynote speaker at numerous national nursing conferences. She obtained her Certification in Narrative Medicine through Columbia University. You can find more of her writing here.
Janice Whitaker, M.Ed., BSN, RN, CDP, CGNE Administrator, Education Program Manager, Community Liaison
Janice Whitaker has served as Administrator, Education Program Manager, and Community Liaison for the Tressa Nese and Helen Diskevich Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence (CGNE), Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing since 2015. Janice provides oversight and operational management of the center’s strategic plan which includes education, research, translation of best practice, service, and sustainability. This involves the CGNE Seminar Series, Annual CGNE Alumni & Friends Spring Brunch, and many other center activities. Prior to working at Penn State, Janice was a Director of Nursing in a skilled nursing/rehab center.
Currently, Janice serves as Project Director for the college’s contributions to the Long-Term Care RISE project as a key partner with the Penn State College of Medicine. She is also a team member on the Teaching Nursing Home Project as well as Age-Friendly Care PA, including leading the Living with Dementia community education series. She serves as co-champion for Penn State’s Age Friendly University initiative involving a task force of representatives from across the university.
Janice has been recognized by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing as a Distinguished Educator in Geriatric Nursing and she is a member of various organizations that work to advance care and quality of life for older adults including Dementia Friends PA. Janice has a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelors of Science in Nursing at Hartwick College in upstate New York.
She is a geriatric nurse, educator, curriculum and program manager, and leader. Janice is a mother and Nana who cherishes time with family and friends as well as her work. While she had professional expertise in the area of grief, she has been a widow since 2017 and her personal loss has had a profound influence on her knowledge and approach to providing education, support, and resources to others on this important aspect of life.