Celebrating Caritas Colleague Gwendolyn J. Kinney

February 2021

We continue to highlight our Caritas Colleagues and share their contribution and commitment to Caring Science. This month we are celebrating: Gwendolyn J. Kinney, MSN, RN, Caritas Coach® & Faculty, Heart Math Trainer, Integral Yoga Instructor.

My Story

Nursing is artistry in the caring moment. My years at the ICU bedside taught me that the real magic came when I could create that vital essence of connection with my patient while delivering clinical expertise. As the Director of Inova Radiation Oncology, we created a compassionate team to the caring moment for each patient/family with loving-kindness during their vulnerable challenge with cancer. As Caring Science Regional Manager for Kaiser Permanente, we promoted methods for creativity and innovative learning which expanded a new era of Caritas leadership across 21 hospitals/Continuum of Care.

My Caritas journey enriches me daily with purpose and the artistry of life itself.

Areas of Expertise
  • Integration of Caring Science for large healthcare organizations
  • Translation of Caring Science through equine asisted educational learning
  • Healthy Aging /Loving Elder Care
Contributions to the Legacy of Caring Science

I am blessed with opportunities to expand the depth and reach of Caring Science through multiple venues. Over the last several years, as a faculty member for the WCSI Caritas Coach Education Program® (CCEP), I work with a collaborative team who support our mentees in their personal and professional exploration of Caring Science and now offer a new online platform for easier global access. Having graduated from the first CCEP cohort, it has been fulfilling to be a part of new ideas generated from a federal grant at Inova Healthcare System in Falls Church, Virginia (2004-2009) grow into foundational standards of excellence used today to promote caring-healing practices and environments. In our ADN-to-BSN program at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, California, I teach nursing leadership and quality improvement using Caring Science as our core philosophy and ethical framework for professional practice.

A venue that continues to soften my heart in unique ways is being a nurse consultant and facilitator for an innovative nursing leadership program that integrates Caring Science, Heart Math, and equine assisted education (horse/human interaction). The Equuisatori Center offers this program in Northern California where our multi-disciplinary team readily see that nature and our animal friends return us to presence, intentionality, and social field awareness which can deepen our “caritas literacy” and our ability to lead from authentic heart-centered passion.

I want to thank Dr. Jean Watson and WCSI for establishing the Caritas community where connection, co-creation, and transformation of ourselves and our healthcare systems can be manifested.

Location

Windsor, CA, USA

Publications
  • Announcement — Upcoming workshop: “Deepening The Power of the Caring Nurse Through Equine Assisted Experiential Learning” to be offered in Spring/Summer 2021. Contact gwen.kinney53@gmail.com for more information.
  • Article, “Caring Science: Transforming the Ethic of Caring-Healing Practice, Environment, and Culture with an Integrated Care Delivery System,” The Permanente Journal, Fall, 2015.
  • Article, “How to Teach Human Caring: Nurse Educator Role in Transformational Learning for a Large Healthcare System,” Journal for Nurses in Staff Development, August 2010.
  • Article, “NICHE at the Hospital”, American Journal of Nursing, May, 2005.