Health Workforce Well-Being (HWWB) Day
Wednesday, March 18, 2026; 7:30-9:00 p.m., ET
March 18 is the national Health Workforce Well-Being (HWWB) Day. The Health HWWB Day aims to recognize the importance of protecting health workers’ well-being to sustain our health system and ensure quality patient care.
Presentation
Trauma-responsive care for the caregiver: Supporting healthcare practitioner well-being & preventing burnout
Description
Healthcare professionals routinely care for individuals who have experienced trauma yet rarely receive training on how this exposure affects their own nervous systems. Over time, repeated stress, secondary trauma, moral injury, and systemic pressures accumulate, leading to dysregulation, emotional exhaustion, and professional burnout.
This session explores the neurobiological and occupational impacts of trauma exposure on healthcare practitioners and introduces trauma-responsive strategies that support well-being, professional longevity, and ethical clinical practice. Participants will examine how stress alters cognition, sensory processing, and decision-making, and will learn practical, evidence-informed techniques to regulate their nervous systems in high-demand environments. Rather than framing burnout as an individual failure, this session positions practitioner distress as a predictable outcome of working within trauma-laden systems — and provides tools to intervene early.
Session Speaker
Varleisha D. Lyons, PhD, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, FNAP
Vice President, DEIJAB Integration & Ethics
This event will be recorded and is open to AOTA members and nonmembers. For more information, please visit the AOTA Calendar of Events.