Nurses are leaders in the delivery of optimal healthcare experiences. These experiences are safe, of high quality and effectiveness and are tailored to the individualized needs of the patient and their family. For these, and many other reasons, nurses are consistently ranked as professionals with the highest level of honesty and integrity. In order to consistently meet these high standards the nurse must have the capacity to fully engage and to be fully present in their practice and in their life.

At the Kent State University College of Nursing Interprofessional Institute for Self-care (IISC), we recognize that the nurses’ capacities for engagement and presence are linked to the foundational values and skills of their own self-care. The IISC is dedicated to the investigation, translation and dissemination of the scholarship and science of self-care. We anticipate that these efforts will have a far reaching and sustaining impact for the nurse, the profession, patients and families, the organizations in which they work and the communities in which they live. We know that the experience of other healthcare professionals and caregivers are similar in natures to the nurses’ experience. This is why we are calling on all healthcare professionals to join us in this effort.

We invite you to join us as an individual, a group or an organization as collaborative partners in this work. Join the Self-Care Café community and find others who have similar interests, ideas and questions. Inspire us with your stories and let us know what you are thinking. Learn self-care techniques and technologies that will support and sustain you. Follow cutting edge investigations and efforts in the areas of science, research and scholarship.

What we do today matters, not only for today, but for the generations of nurses and healthcare professionals and the communities they will serve that will come after us.