You are your most important patient
Mission
The Most Important Patient (MIP) conference is an opportunity for healthcare workers to care for themselves in order to meaningfully care for others. Our mission is to offer healthcare workers tools, resources, and community support and guidance to regain their sense of self and purpose both inside and outside of healthcare.
This six day reprieve is dedicated to focusing on the wellbeing of healthcare workers through education, self-advocacy, spiritual growth, community, and sustainability.
Vision
At the MIP conference, we imagine a world where healthcare workers unlock emotions of joy, hope, and clarity, sparking a brighter future for themselves and those they serve. Our commitment is to empower them with the tools, resources, and community support needed to reignite their passion for life, infusing their journey with purpose and positivity. Through six transformative days filled with education, self-advocacy, spiritual growth, community, and sustainability, our goal is to cultivate an environment where healthcare professionals can thrive, finding happiness and fulfillment as they compassionately care for themselves first.
Letter to our community
Dear Healthcare Workers,
The Most Important Patient conference is an opportunity for healthcare workers to experience for themselves the care that they offer to others.
Developed by healthcare workers, this conference serves as a long-overdue sanctuary for our fellow professionals. It's a crucial space where we, as healthcare providers, can genuinely prioritize our personal and professional needs. Drawing from our firsthand experiences, we comprehend the emotional, physical, and spiritual toll of navigating a flawed healthcare system.
Our aim is to equip healthcare workers with the necessary tools, resources, and a supportive community, fostering a reclaiming of self and purpose within and beyond healthcare. We, as insiders, recognize the profound connection between our well-being and that of our patients. This conference is not merely about "wellness" or "self-care"; it's a holistic approach that acknowledges the interdependence of healthcare workers and patients within a larger ecosystem.
Conceived with the intention of providing a space for healthcare workers to be heard, witnessed, recognized, celebrated, and loved, this conference also serves as a platform for mutual support. We understand the need for spaces to process, heal, and share hidden stories with others who comprehend the journey. By creating this space, we affirm that healthcare workers are not alone in their experiences, fostering a community of understanding and resilience.
Healthcare systems do need to change. We acknowledge, practices that foster our wellbeing don’t necessarily address the systems that need to do better- We aim to reclaim the narrative to recognize that self-care, when led BY and FOR healthcare workers, can be revolutionary - and it must happen alongside reshaping the system.
This conference is unique in that we are focused on drawing from evidence while centering lived experience, peer support & community. We mean to create an educational and communal space dedicated to helping us heal, deepen our relationship to ourselves and each other, and reimagine what our profession can look like.
With love and respect,
the Most Important Patient team
What is an MIP Conference?
This conference offers healthcare workers tools, resources, community support and guidance to begin to regain their sense of self and purpose both inside and outside of healthcare.
As healthcare workers ourselves, we know firsthand the emotional, physical and spiritual toll of giving so much of yourself to a very flawed system.
We need spaces to process, to heal, and to share the stories we’ve hidden for years with others who understand. We are creating a space to affirm that we are not alone in our experiences.
This gathering will provide participants with increased access to joy, clarity, and happiness, empowering them to navigate their journey with renewed optimism.
EDUCATION
COMMUNITY
SPIRITUAL GROWTH
NAVIGATING TRAUMA
SELF-ADVOCACY
SUSTAINABILITY
Our Core Pillars
NURTURE SELF-ADVOCACY
Reclaim “self care,” and mental wellness practices that are realistic for your personal and professional needs.
Disrupt the culture of lateral violence and bullying through internal reflection & open conversations around normalcy of harmful behaviors.
Walk away with tools to mitigate burnout, enhanced communication, empower boundary setting and systems change
MEANINGFUL EDUCATION
Gain real-world knowledge applicable in various clinical settings through evidence-based and current standards of care education
Find identity beyond your role, develop boundaries for sustainable practice, and meaningfully impact the lives of patients through prioritization of self.
Engage with empowering, interactive courses designed for various learning styles, ensuring information retention over the long term.
NAVIGATING TRAUMA
Acknowledge the moral distress felt within healthcare systems and implement holistic healing modalities to care for yourself and patients.
Disrupt the patterns that keep us isolated and afraid to reach out for support
Identify how cumulative trauma manifests within you both personally and professionally.
Deconstruct career wounds through self expression and holistic healing modalities as an integral part of healing trauma.
FOSTER SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Engage in introspective practices that honor your own heritage and spirituality as well learn from the cultures and belief systems that honor our shared humanity
Disrupt self-judgment and preconceived notions about spiritual practices
Celebrate mysticism and contemplative practices that spark joy and connect you with something bigger than yourself
Address layers of grief and loss within the spectrum of healthcare through dedicated support spaces
Reclaim sense of self and cultivate deeper self compassion and understanding that allow us to rediscover our shared humanity
COLLECTIVE SUSTAINABILITY
Build our awareness of our individual roles within larger systems and how our healthcare roles contribute to moral distress and cumulative trauma
Disrupt the narrative that these cycles of harm are inevitable by recognizing institutional betrayal
Foster honest conversation about the toll of healthcare on our personal and professional lives and how this impacts our communities
Take first steps in advocating for safe, sustainable healthcare for our patients through prioritizing our own wellbeing
BUILD COMMUNITY
Embrace a community where you can feel recognized and heard, by people who deeply understand your experiences and stories, through sharing collective truths.
Disrupt culture of isolation in healthcare
Build meaningful life-long friendships within the healthcare community and become a part of a supported network.
Our Team of Creators
-
Amy Loughren
Founder and Executive Director
Amy Loughren is a Trauma Nurse, Hypnotherapist, Reiki Master and Quantum TimeLine Regressionist. Also known as ‘The Good Nurse’ for her role in assisting in the arrest and prosecution of serial murderer Charlie Cullen. Her story is now a Netflix movie.
-
Liesel Albrecht
Partner and Co-Founder Director of The Retreat Specialists of Australia
With over 30 years experience, Liesel is renowned retreat specialist who has organized retreats throughout the globe. Her flagship retreats have hosted notable figures like Elizabeth Gilbert and Gabrielle Bernstein, emphasizing the importance of creating nurturing spaces for personal growth. Liesel's retreat teams help individuals access their inner wisdom, cultivate mindfulness, and foster a sense of community. Her unique retreat experiences combine yoga, meditation, creative workshops, and adventure, allowing participants to embark on transformative journeys of self-discovery and holistic well-being.
-
Sarah Warren
Director of Marketing and Sponsorship Coordinator
Executive Director of Don’t Clock Out
Sarah Warren is a registered nurse, writer, speaker, activist, and mental health advocate. She dedicated the last four years of her career to working at the bedside, as well as advocating for better and safer working conditions for all healthcare professionals and the patients they care for. She is now the executive director & co-founder of Don't Clock Out, a 501c3 organization dedicated to supporting healthcare workers through what they go through while navigating the impacts of moral distress.
-
Jenny Mannion
Director of Aspen Oasis and the Spiritual Arts Expo
Jenny, in healing 7 years of diseases in 3 weeks, awakened to her purpose. For the last 17 years she has been dedicated to learning, discovering and creating tools to help others. She is a best selling author, speaker, teacher and healer. She is licensed in over 15 healing modalities including the Akashic Records, Shamanic techniques, Reconnective healing, Law of Attraction Coaching and more. Jenny offers many easy tools to tap into our unlimitedness of being and embrace self-love and self-worth. Jenny helps people remove blocks and restrictions and heal past trauma to manifest relationships and life circumstances aligned with our highest selves. In doing this we can live our best life and also help those around us and the world from a filled space of love and energy.
-
Dr. Nathalie Santos DPM
Event Organizational Assistant
Board Certified Podiatrist & Director of Advocacy at Don’t Clock Out
After completing her surgical residency training in the North East during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nathalie realized just how invaluable and necessary it is for healthcare workers to prioritize their own well-being, first and foremost. Recognizing how unsustainable our current pace is, she joined forces with Don’t Clock Out as their Director of Advocacy to help empower HCW with mental health resources. She’s passionate about fostering community among healthcare workers, burnout, self-care, spirituality, photography and the power of storytelling.” goes here
-
Farida Labaran, RN
Event Organizational Assistant
Farida is an immigrant from Ghana to the United States at 16, brings 8 years of Registered Nurse (RN) experience with a passion for delivering vital medical and psychosocial support to individuals dealing with severe mental health illnesses. As the co-founder and Vice Chair of Share the Warmth International (STW), a non-profit tackling societal challenges in unhoused and underserved communities globally, Farida is dedicated to creating a more equitable and inclusive world through resource provision, awareness raising, and sustainable solutions.
-
Cara Lunsford
VP of Community for Nurse.com
Cara is a compassionate healthcare professional and the pioneering founder of HOLLIBLU, a robust network aimed at fostering unity and support in the nursing community. Leveraging her extensive experience as a pediatric oncology nurse, she developed HOLLIBLU to fuel a revolution in healthcare by empowering nurses with advanced tools and resources. Guided by her dedication to her peers and a vision for a more nurturing healthcare environment, Cara is propelling significant advancements in nurse retention, satisfaction, and well-being.
-
Mignon Mukti
Retreat Guide and Director of Productions
Mignon Mukti is a transformational musician, sound healer, sacred activist and community event producer. She brings music and song as a powerful instrument for healing and creating unity and social change. Mignon has been producing festivals , concerts, retreats and conferences around the world for more than 30 years. Originally from South Africa now living in Australia, she brings a myriad of skills, wisdom and heart energy to all the events she is part of.
-
Kate Chapman
Master of Ceremonies
Kate strives to help people feel better. A veteran Broadway entertainer, Kate also holds a Master’s degree in Health Arts and Sciences and is an Author. As a Health Coach, Life Coach, and End of Life Specialist, she supports clients through all that life has to offer. But mostly, Kate focuses on “play”.
-
Chloe Foley
Production and Operations Assistant
Chloe is an experienced operations manager and program facilitator in the welfare space.
As someone with lived experience navigating trauma and mental health, she is passionate about education and reducing stigma around talking to our sensitive experiences.
Chloe is energised when she has opportunity to create and hold space for others to be empowered on their own healing and wellbeing journeys and is looking forward to achieving this alongside the MIP team.
-
Harlie Monroe
Sponsorship Coordinator
Registered Nurse & Non-Profit Founder
A committed registered nurse at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, is a passionate advocate for mental health in her community. Beyond her nursing role, she channels her dedication into her own non-profit organization, The Jared Monroe Foundation, offering crucial support to college students with bipolar disorder, aiming to bridge gaps in mental health care and awareness.
-
Holly Herzog
Event Organizational Assistant
Holly is a therapist, coach and writer who has been a practicing licensed professional in the US for over 30 years. She specializes in all issues that are relationship oriented and is passionate about helping people live their fullest life. You can find her newest venture, Grace Untethered, at www.graceuntethered.com.
A Message From Our Founder
20 years ago I started on a journey to answer some deep questions about why I was struggling with my mental health - and how I could have befriended a serial killer?!
Back then no one talked about cumulative PTSD from working under such high pressure in the medical field or about caregiver burnout. In fact it was looked down on to talk about mental health, and it created a stigma that followed you through your career.
So I began my quest without any direction and no real support and it would take me 20 years to eventually find the answers I was looking for.
I accomplished my healing alone - but you don’t have to.
-
Traditional talk therapy certainly was a good start however I craved something more. I'd heard about Hypnotherapy helping anesthesiologists decrease the amount of medicine needed for their patients so I thought “why not learn Hypnotherapy”.
That was my gateway modality. I not only received a transformative experience for myself, but it was the first breadcrumb to my healing through amazing creative and science based modalities; most of which, I had never heard of.
I studied Reiki, Integrative Energy Therapy, Reconnective Healing, The Work by Byron Katie, TimeLine Regression, Acupuncture, Craniosacral therapy, Chakra Healing, Quantum Meditation, Quantum Jumping, Tantric Yoga, Akashic Records, HydroTherapy, Sound Healing, Crystal Labyrinths, Shamanic Journeying, and dozens more. I studied with Gurus, enlightened healers, Shamans, Buddhists, Vedic Astrologers, Holy Women, Native American Medicine Healers, Mediums, and Psychics.
I traveled the world to experience everything I possibly could to help me recognize who I really was. And I did find that answer.
I now want to share these amazing discoveries with my sisters and brothers in Healthcare.
I know you don’t have 20 years to find your own unique answers, but I'm guessing you might be able to set aside a week to explore some of these powerful techniques and modalities.
I've assembled a team of healers, psychics, mediums, and skilled practitioners to help you on your quest. I’ve even gathered International Retreat Specialists and world renowned speakers along with traditional therapists to sit with you and send you in the right direction.
I accomplished my healing alone, but you don’t have to.
I will hold your hand and help you on your quest. Together we can restore you to who you always knew you could be. Together we can form a community with others who want to heal. Together we can learn how to take care of each other and ourselves with new tools and a new hope you might have forgotten.
We've got this.
SUPPORTED BY:
