Members of the Clinton School faculty and Essential Partners are inviting members of the healthcare community – medical providers, administrators, and support staff – to attend free, online, facilitated, small-group dialogues where they will have the chance to talk with others in the field about their COVID-19 experiences, to hear and be heard by one another about what matters most in this unique moment of isolation, loss, uncertainty, and strain.
The 75-to-90-minute dialogues will take place via Zoom and be held on Monday, July 5 and Thursday, July 8 at noon CT. Registration is available online.
The dialogues are a continuation of the work of faculty members Chul Hyun Park and Robert C. Richards, Jr., who previously conducted virtual dialogues with Massachusetts healthcare workers regarding their experiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Previous participants in these dialogues have said that they appreciated the opportunity to process and reflect on the challenges of the past year with health care colleagues who can really understand their experiences,” Dr. Richards said.
The dialogues are being evaluated as part of a research study which has been approved by the institutional review board of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Participants will be invited to be part of the research study. Individuals can agree to participate in the dialogue without being part of the research study.
The dialogues are organized by Essential Partners, an organization that helps communities and institutions have healthier, more complex, more inclusive conversations about polarizing differences of values, beliefs, and identities. Essential Partners’ trademark dialogue is a form called Reflective Structured Dialogue, which helps communities and organizations disrupt patterns to hold open, honest, constructive conversations about potentially divisive topics.
The evaluation of the dialogues is supported by a grant from Villanova University’s Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society (WFI), which was founded on the principle that the study and practice of communication requires attention to values, ethics and social justice, and that properly understood, communication is central to the creation of positive social change. WFI explores the ethical dimensions of communication and its role in creating social change through cutting-edge research and student programs, as well as the hands-on involvement of communication scholars and professionals from around the globe.
For more information, email Dr. Richards at rcrichards@clintonschool.uasys.edu.
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