Resiliency Moments: Art & Healthcare During a Time of Crisis

Nurses and other healthcare workers often suffer from compassion fatigue and burnout, and even more so during the extreme circumstances of COVID-19. Responding to this crisis, socially engaged artists have found opportunities to share their creativity, deploy empathy skills, and contribute to the wellbeing of essential workers. “Resiliency Moments,” a new intervention piloted during Reimagine: Life, Loss & Love, brings these two professional groups together to make art, heal grief and trauma, and mend a broken health care system.

Co-led by Tara Rynders, a multidisciplinary artist, registered nurse, and A Blade of Grass Fellow for Socially Engaged Art, and artists Jadd Tank and Lia Bonfilio, The Clinic provides one-on-one creative experiences designed to make health care workers feel seen, heard, and cared for. During this live discussion, Rynders, The Clinic’s ensemble of artists, and healthcare and social work staff who participated in a “Resiliency Moments” pilot program at Northwell Health share insights on their experience, how these interventions might address implicit bias and racial disparities in healthcare, and opportunities to scale up. Breakout groups will provide audience members with a direct experience of how Resiliency Moments work. This event is co-hosted by A Blade of Grass, The Clinic, and Reimagine.

Participants:

Tara Rynders, Artistic Director, The Clinic

Paula McAvoy, Senior Administrative Director, Hospice and Palliative Care, University Hospice, Staten Island University Hospital/Northwell

Artists Jadd Tank (Lebanon) and Lia Bonfilio (NYC)

Introduced by Andrew Ingall, Co-Director, Reimagine NYC

Moderated by Prerana Reddy, Director of Programs, A Blade of Grass