The Significance of Play in Restoring Compassion
Doctoral Dissertation by
Caroline P. Cárdenas, Ph.D.
Meridian University
2022
PLAYING FOR KEEPS
KPJR Films Documentary
Playing For Keeps is a new documentary that examines the value of play through a health lens. Featuring high-performing individuals who prioritize play as essential to a happier life, we witness how play is a powerful antidote to stress and a more joyful life.
Caroline Cárdenas is one of the spotlighted characters in the documentary film, where she shares her experience of burnout and compassion fatigue an an oncology nurse and how the experiential process of play through hula hooping has positively transformed her life.
Teaching Nurses Self-Care
Acts for Good Walden University
As a psychologist, and oncology and hospice nurse, Dr. Caroline Cárdenas (MSN, ’14) knows firsthand the mental and emotional exhaustion caregivers face. She’s now using her Ph.D. in Psychology from Meridian University and her MSN degree from Walden University to support helping professionals to overcome compassion fatigue and prevent burnout through the transformative power of body and moment play and reflexivity.
Walden University Master of Science in Nursing Education Follow Your Why Campaign
Walden University Follow Your Why Campaign “Hoopdancing to Prevent and Decrease Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Among Nurses” Filmed in 2017
Playing For Keeps San Francisco Indie Film Fest Q&A
Semel HCI Health Equity Seminar
The Role of Play in Health Equity
The Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA is kicking off our Health Equity Seminar series with the virtual movie premiere of PLAYING FOR KEEPS open to all University of California students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees from October 25 – 27, 2020. The Health Equity Seminar consists of the virtual movie premiere followed by a panel discussion around the role of play in health equity.
PLAYING FOR KEEPS examines the importance of play and downtime for all of us – children, adults, seniors and animals. It is a tapestry of interwoven characters that takes a look at the health benefits of the play state as well as its recent decline in our lives.
Hoop Dancing for Nurses to Prevent Burnout and Compassion Fatigue UCSD Nursing Journal 2014
Caroline's Master's thesis "Hoopdancing to Prevent and Decrease Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Among Nurses" published in the University of California San Diego Journal of Nursing.
Hoop Dancing to Prevent Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Among Nurses Journal of Emergency Nursing 2014
Think for a moment of a life without play. Dr. Stuart Brown, the President of the National Institute for Play, agreed that the opposite of play is not work, its depression stating that play is vital to our survival.
Published Poem in the Journal of Palliative Medicine
Caroline's first published poem in the Journal of Palliative Medicine.
Walden University
Find out how to make qualified and important staffing decisions.
Walden University MSN Follow Your Why Campaign
MSN graduate Caroline Sánchez accomplished more than she ever thought possible with Walden University. How will you make an impact in the lives of others?
Hula-Hoop Dancing for Health and Happiness
Caroline Pauline Cárdenas, RN, MSN, CBCN, RYT 200hr has one question for all of us: “Are you practicing enough play in your life?” Cárdenas, an oncology nurse for more than 10 years, has been passionate about working with cancer patients ever since her mother died from breast cancer at 47. Her close work in women’s health led her to find a passion: hoop dancing.
The Hula Hoop Girl Teaches Hoopdance at Wanderlust in San Diego, California
Caroline Pauline Cárdenas, MSN, RN, CBCN, RYT200hr is the founder of The Hula Hoop Girl, an Embodied Movement Meditation Practice that guides women to reconnect to their own natural born rhythm while feeling empowered to self-resource and self-express through the transformational power of body play.