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Opening and Closing Speakers

Music: Róisín Hayes,Music Therapist

Róisín Hayes completed her undergraduate degree in Music in Trinity College Dublin, and a Masters degree in Music Therapy from the University of Limerick. Roisin is an accomplished musician on many instruments and is also a composer, having composed for ensembles, musicians and choirs both nationally and internationally. Róisín is passionate about the benefits of music therapy and she currently provides music therapy at Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) St. James’s Hospital and has also provided music therapy for the hospital staff during the Covid pandemic. Róisín has provided music therapy across the lifespan to both individuals and groups and has worked in Haven House Children’s Hospice, and the National Rehabilitation Hospital.

Welcome: Professor Jacqueline Whelan

Jacqueline is an Asst Professor - General Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Jacqueline has over three decades of extensive experience both as a general and children’s nurse, clinical educator, senior management, academic, researcher, teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her research interests are centered around the themes of person centered care, spirituality, spiritual care, spiritual care education, caring science, communication, professional nurse education concerns, with research and peer-reviewed international publications and speaker at international conferences. Jacqueline was most recently involved in the Erasmus Plus Project - Enhancing Nurses' and Midwives' Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care (EPICC 2016-2019) as an Associate Partner where specific spiritual care competencies and a Spiritual Care Education Standard was developed for nurses and midwives across Europe. Jacqueline is currently involved as an Associate Partner in Erasmus Plus project - From Cure to Care - Digital Education and Spiritual Assistance in Hospital Healthcare, in addition to a global research project regarding Advanced Practice Nurses Perceptions of Spirituality. Jacqueline is the Chair of the Trinity Spirituality Research and Innovation Group (SRIG) in the School, and is responsible for organizing the group's Annual International Spirituality and Healthcare Interdisciplinary Research Conference and SRIG's Public Lecture/ Webinar Series. She is an active member of The International Network for the Study of Spirituality (INSS (UK), The Spirituality Scholars Network (SSN), The EPICC Network - Enhancing Nurses' and Midwives' Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care, Watson Caring Science Institute (USA) and the Viktor Frankl Institute in Ireland and Vienna. She currently holds the position of School Academic Lead International Winter and Summer Schools; Joint Academic Erasmus lead for General Nursing in the School of Nursing & Midwifery and is a School Lead in the College Trinity Inclusive Curriculum Project.

Mindfulness Meditation: Professor Kathleen Neenan

Kathleen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Kathleen has worked in general and children's nursing practice in clinical, management and educational roles. Kathleen, teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has led the curricular development of the first MSc in Specialist Nursing across seven branches of nursing in the School of Nursing & Midwifery. She holds the position of Post Graduate Educational Facilitator for the MSc Emergency Department Nursing. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of caregivers, spiritual care, mindfulness and well-being. Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and she has presented numerous peer-reviewed papers at national and international conferences.

She is a member of the EPICC Network - Enhancing Nurses' and Midwives' Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care, EPICC.

Kathleen trained as a Mindfulness-Based Interventions teachers in University of Bangor. She trained as a teacher of the Mindful Self Compassion programme with the University of Cailfornia San Diego. She is passionate about sharing mindfulness practice (in the form of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programmes and Mindful Self Compassion Programmes with both students in her modules and employees and managers in the organisations with whom she works.

Opening Address: Professor Arndt Bussing

Arndt Büssing (* 1962) is a medical doctor and professor for quality of life, spirituality and coping at the University of Witten / Herdecke, Germany, and has been associated as a research professor at IUNCTUS - Competence Center for Christian Spirituality at the Philosophical-Theological University of Münster since 2016.

Research interests focus on spirituality as a resource to cope, support of spiritual needs in people in stressful life situations, and spiritual dryness as a form of spiritual crisis, and finally questionnaire design. He is co-editor of the German Journal for Oncology, member of the editorial boards of the journals Spiritual Care, the Journal of Religion and Health, the Journal for the Study of Spirituality, and editor-in-chief of the journal Religions.

Closing Reflection: Fr. Francis X. McAloon, S.J., STL, Ph.D.

Francis X. McAloon, S.J., PhD, is Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality and Ignatian Studies at the Graduate School of Religion, Fordham University, Bronx, NY. Currently, he directs the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program and coordinates the Christian Spirituality programs (MA and Advanced Certificates). He currently serves on the board of directors for the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (SSCS) and the editorial board for SPIRITUS: A JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY. His research focuses upon the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and their potential as texts for contemplation, employing the interdisciplinary tools of the academic study of Christian spirituality, Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics, and new-historicist literary criticism. In recent years, his research has expanded to include the methods and critiques of disability studies, focusing upon critiquing the social, medical, and spiritual constructs for people with chronic illness and proposing possibilities for spiritual affiliation -- through contemplation, poetry, and the arts.

Closing Remarks: Professor Kathleen Neenan

Kathleen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Kathleen has worked in general and children's nursing practice in clinical, management and educational roles. Kathleen, teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and has led the curricular development of the first MSc in Specialist Nursing across seven branches of nursing in the School of Nursing & Midwifery. She holds the position of Post Graduate Educational Facilitator for the MSc Emergency Department Nursing. Her research interests lie primarily in the area of caregivers, spiritual care, mindfulness and well-being. Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and she has presented numerous peer-reviewed papers at national and international conferences.

She is a member of the EPICC Network - Enhancing Nurses' and Midwives' Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care, EPICC.

Kathleen trained as a Mindfulness-Based Interventions teachers in University of Bangor. She trained as a teacher of the Mindful Self Compassion programme with the University of Cailfornia San Diego. She is passionate about sharing mindfulness practice (in the form of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programmes and Mindful Self Compassion Programmes with both students in her modules and employees and managers in the organisations with whom she works.

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