In 2016, Cynda Rushton started exploring what could be done to help nurses prepare for the moral distress and suffering that they would inevitably face as part of their work in healthcare. And the leadership at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing was on board. Dean Patricia Davidson knew how many nurses leave the profession within their first year of work, making it clear how important emphasizing the role of resilience is in preparing nurses for their careers. From there, the Mindful Ethical Practice and Resilience Academy (MEPRA) was born. Through MEPRA, nurses learn to be mindful, clarify their values, and exercise self-stewardship, all skills which then strengthen their moral resilience and help them confront the ethical challenges they face in acute care settings.

Ryan Antiel, MD is currently spearheading The Project on the Good Surgeon, a program for surgery residents at the Duke University School of Medicine that helps them consider both their ethical and technical formation as surgeons. The Project’s vision “is focused on helping residents rediscover meaning and purpose in their work, develop the character traits necessary to sustain their calling, and ultimately promote flourishing in their surgical practice.”

Since 2020, the Leadership for Flourishing network has hosted an online community of practice to help members connect leadership practices to ecosystem-wide flourishing. With participants from institutions such as Oxford, Harvard, and West Point, there are a wide variety of experiences and perspectives represented as members work to grow and support each other.

Former Bates College president Clayton Spencer reflects on the Bates College Purposeful Work program and the role of the liberal arts in cultivating vocation.

What began as just a class has started to catch on in a much bigger way. The Dialogue Project now encompasses a number of initiatives at Saint Mary’s. Over the years, dialogue and civil discourse material has been integrated into first-year courses, a peer dialogue facilitator program, and training for student leaders on campus.