Work-Life Balance - Creating & Sustaining Connections in a Complex World

Professor Linda J Kristjanson Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research & Development

What work-life balance is not:

It is not about being perfect It is not about being right It is not about being clever or having all
the answers It is not about being a superwoman or superman

Work-Life Balance
About staying connected to my self, to
my values, to the relationships I create along the way and to work and actions

that are meaningful.

Balance
About living authentically Doing work that feels intrinsically rewarding What matters is that the person undertakes

his/her work with integrity Balance also requires us to pay attention to our connections to family, to friends, to our self Remembering to breath

Balance
When I take time to take care of my own
health, my needs for rest, exercise, giving my body good food making time for the people I love Remembering that the work I do is important but it is not my whole life I keep my balance and my connections to others replenish and sustain me.

My Background and Work

Canada
Influence of parents Politics and social
contribution

Education and

international work

Growing up in this family taught me:

it was pure luck that I grew up in the family I

did with the privileges of education and opportunity we don't get to choose our parents, no one religion or culture or nation has the corner on truth, underneath our skin, we are more similar than different and that we are all part of an interconnected web of co-existence.

Nursing
Family influence Nurses who led the way Values match Witches, Midwives and Nurses Outlines struggles women have faced in
attempting to comfort, health and seek education to practice as health professionals

Women as Healers
1400s - source of healing was religious men messengers of God (priests) women who were healers were therefore
witches ergo - burn them Science education and university male domain Nurses were poorly educated, underprivileged backgrounds

Nursing Development
Florence Nightingale helped to elevate Nursing "No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other
definition of what a nurse should be than this - 'devoted and obedient.' This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do so for a horse. It will not do for a nurse (1859).
hygiene, environmental health factors, healing, nutrition, and psychological well-being through her diligent collection of data and statistical analysis

Notes on Nursing provided an understanding of

1850 - noted for her contributions to nursing research

Nursing as a Profession
Practice according to Nursing Act Most often at the patient's bedside 24 hours/day Make astute observations, triage patients in

emergency departments, provide care to individuals with increasing complex health problems, and employ more technically complex procedures than ever before Manage finite health care resources Nurse in hospitals, community clinics, people's homes, on oil rigs, in factories, in refugee camps, in prisons and in war zones Need to be well educated, well remunerated and recognised for the valuable work they do

Nurses leading the way

International Society of Nurses in Cancer
Care palliative care service run by Jewish and Arab nurses in Israel

Nurses in Brazil developed a serve to help

women with breast cancer and their families Acolhimento

Palliative Care

DVC Role
fortunate to work with talented, passionate
people who are undertaking research that matters and educating the next generation of researchers and science will contribute solutions to world problems. Professor Peter Newman, Svetha Venkatesh, Robert Amin, Moyez Jiwa, Vishnu Pareek, Tony Owen, Anna Heitz, and Dani Stehlik are examples.

Do I manage to achieve a work life balance?

Constant conversation with myself Over function at home

Over function at work

 Put your health first - Taking care of you is

especially important when life gets hectic

Lessons Learned (and relearned)

Let go of perfection it is the enemy of good, Let go of your arrogance that you can do it all
and ask for help

will wear you out and make you inpatient with others

Look for the joke Pay attention to the people in your lives