Centering Our Work: The Challenge to "Be" in the Midst of Having to "Do" with Nontombi Naomi Tutu is available for 90 days after enrollment.

This session was originally presented as a plenary session at NHPCO’s Caring for Mind Body and Spirit Conference in 2007. This opening plenary set the stage for three days of education about psychosocial, bereavement and spiritual needs and care at the end of life. In the midst of important learning about best practices, innovative approaches, program development and community outreach and more - all crucial components of our work, Nontombi Naomi Tutu will remind us of the importance of “being” to our work. This “being” rather than “doing” perspective requires that we slow down, quiet and “center” ourselves and focus our attention on gleaning what patients and families truly desire from us rather than what we assume or decide they need. As she weaves stories and experiences from her work with other cultures and divergent worlds into essential messages we will take from this plenary, Ms. Tutu will challenge us to present our best and most authentic selves to those in our care, to honor their lives, stories and experiences and to understand how our care of others intertwines with our care of ourselves.

Objectives:

• Identify differences in the way people from different cultures approach the end of life;
• Discuss the difference between “being” vs. “doing” and the application of each to care of people at the end of life;
• Discuss the connection between professionals’ ability to identify and attend to their own needs for care and their ability to identify and attend to the care needs of others;
• Identify the necessary and integral components of care for self and care of others.

Nontombi Naomi Tutu

The challenges of growing black and female in apartheid South Africa has led Naomi Tutu to her present as an activist for human rights. Those experiences taught how much we all lose when any of us is judged purely on physical attributes. In her speeches she blends the passion for human dignity with humor and personal stories.

Ms Tutu is the third child Archbishop Desmond and Nomalizo Leah Tutu. She was born in South Africa and has also lived in Lesotho, the United Kingdom and the United States. She was educated in Swaziland, the US and England, and has divided her adult life between South Africa and the US. Growing up the ‘daughter of …’ has offered Naomi Tutu many opportunities and challenges in her life. Most important of these has been the challenge to find her own place in the world. She has taken up the challenge and channeled the opportunities that she has been given to raise her voice as a champion for the dignity of all.

Her professional experience ranges from being a development consultant in West Africa, to being program coordinator for programs on Race and Gender and Gender-based Violence in Education at the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town. In addition, Ms Tutu has taught at the Universities of Hartford and Connecticut and Brevard College in North Carolina. Ms Tutu has also led Truth and Reconciliation Workshops for groups dealing with different types of conflict.

In addition to speaking, Ms Tutu is a consultant to two organizations which reflect the breadth of her involvement in issues of human rights. The organizations are the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV), founded by renowned author Riane Eisler and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Betty Williams, and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA).

You will have access to this course for 90 days from the date of purchase.

Course Release Date: 2/23/2010

Course expiration Date: 2/23/2013

Nurse: NHPCO is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

NHPCO designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 contact hours. Nurses should claim only the contact hours commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Accredited status by ANCC refers only to continuing nursing education and does not imply endorsement of any commercial product discussed in conjunction with this activity. 

Social Worker: NHPCO is an approved provider of continuing education contact hours by the National Association of Social Workers (provider #886414158). This education activity is approved for 1 hours determined by the content, and social workers are awarded continuing education hours commensurate with the extent of their participation.

You will have access to this course for 90 days from the date of purchase.

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