ISSUED: 3 April 2014
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University hosted an integrative health workshop for area professionals March 13 in Erma Ora Byrd Hall.
The workshop was designed for healthcare professionals who desire evidenced-based information on the implications of chronic illness and holistic interventions to move toward a healthy lifestyle.
“What we talked about were pieces for their toolkit that they can use for themselves or for their patients to be able to take better care of themselves, so the focus was really on health and wellness,” said Dr. Bonnie Parker, assistant professor of nursing education at Shepherd and workshop coordinator.
Dr. Peggy Burkhardt, FNP, AHN-BC, president of the American Holistic Nurses Association, opened the workshop with her presentation “Holistic Nursing–Past, Present, and Future.” Keynote speaker Dr. Eileen O’Grady, RN, NP, and wellness coach, presented “Become the CEO of Your Own Life: A Workshop on the Practice.”
“She spoke about what we need to do as individuals to take better care of ourselves. It was awesome,” Parker said.
Also presenting was Dawn M. Adams, DNP, ANP-BC, CHC, and integrative health counselor with “Weight and Mediation: Weight, That’s Not the Issue.”
Lunch included a drum circle. Later breakout sessions focused on music and the brain and coaching methods and how to use those techniques with patients or clients. The workshop closed with a yoga session.
Parker said she hopes the workshop will be an annual event dealing with some type of self care and complimentary and alternative medicine.
Shepherd University’s Department of Nursing Education, Nursing Honor Society, and Division of Graduate Studies sponsored the event. Seventy-one nurses, social workers, psychologists, and community members, including 29 Shepherd students, participated and could earn six nursing contact hours.
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