A national seminar is set to take place next month in Cork to provide time and space for frontline practitioners to pause and reflect on their work.

‘Reconnecting with the heart of frontline practice’ is a hybrid in-person and online event taking place at Nano Nagle Place. It is open to all frontline practitioners working in health, social care, social work or education.

This is the third year this seminar has been held. The theme of this year’s event is “Connecting and relating in diverse and complex settings” as healthcare, social work, social care and educational workplace settings are by their nature complex and diverse.

Guest speakers are Dr Tom A Hutchinson, Professor, Department of Medicine and Department of Oncology and director at McGill Programs in Whole Person Care, Canada; Joan Fletcher, independent social worker, psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and trainer, and Nickie Egan, principal of North Presentation Primary School in Cork. Each will share insight from an individual and practice experience perspective on the topic of relating and connecting.

The collaborators behind the event – Dr Maeve Hurley, Jim Sheehan and Dr Nicola O’Sullivan – have interest in supporting frontline practitioners’ health and wellbeing.

Mr Sheehan said: 

“Our focus is on creating safe spaces for multi-disciplinary practitioners to gather together as a community to reflect on the values and sense of mission and purpose that drew them to their work in the first place, how they can reconnect with this and how it can help sustain them and keep them motivated and well.”

Dr Nicola O’ Sullivan said: “We look forward to welcoming practitioners to what will be an open, friendly and reflective exploration of what is at the heart of frontline practice, while considering the physical, psychological, emotional and relational impacts of frontline work in complex systems.”

The one-day, not-for-profit event will take place on on Tuesday May 24, from 9.30am to 3.45pm. Tickets are €50 and can be purchased via Eventbrite or email sabrina.moris@relationshipsinpractice.ie.