Tabitha Childers, MSN, NP, RN
Founder & Executive Director
Tabitha's diverse background in healthcare and her personal life experiences have shaped her mission to bring actionable wellness programs to underserved communities. She has worked in various specialties including Labor & Delivery, Integrative Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Emergency Medicine, and Trauma Surgery. Over 20 years of experience in healthcare has given her a unique perspective into the lives of patients facing acute and critical illnesses and into the lived experience of a healthcare worker – both nursing and provider.
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Tabitha's journey began in 2003 when she attended nursing school at Northwest Florida College in Niceville, Florida. She started her career in Labor and Delivery and the Neonatal ICU, gaining valuable experience in maternal and child health. In 2008, she obtained a graduate degree in Executive Nursing Administration and transitioned into nursing leadership roles. Tabitha pursued another graduate degree in nursing and earned her Nurse Practitioner certification in 2011. Much of Tabitha’s career in healthcare has been focused on special projects with the goal of improving the quality of healthcare for patients. Over the years, it became clear that healthcare quality and patient safety is dramatically impacted by the well-being of the humans that are doing the work. The more stress, trauma, burnout, and moral injury healthcare workers experience, the less able they are to provide safe and compassionate care to patients. Work-related stress and trauma have a profound impact on the personal lives of healthcare workers as well – many suffering with addiction, depression, relationship difficulties, and lack of enjoyment of life. Many have gone on to complete suicide. If we can help to relieve the suffering of even one person, then all of our efforts will have paid off.
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Tabitha's inspiration for Hope for Healthcare came during her yoga teacher training in 2022. Her instructors challenged her to develop a yoga program that would address a specific need in her local or personal community. This experience, coupled with her personal journey of healing from severe burnout, motivated her to create a non-profit that would offer services to healthcare workers that would both prevent and treat issues commonly experienced by healthcare workers including, work-related stress, burnout, moral injury, addiction, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and suicide. Having worked in two of the most high-stress medical specialties, emergency medicine and critical care, Tabitha has firsthand experience with the challenges facing healthcare workers and is committed to finding solutions that promote healthcare worker well-being, health, resilience and most importantly, HOPE.
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One of Tabitha's teachers once said that when you lose someone really special, you get to live double for them. Hope for Healthcare has become Tabitha's opportunity to live double for those we've lost. Many of us have lost treasured colleagues to suicide and accidental overdose. We are developing crisis response services designed to help and support families and healthcare facilities who have experienced loss due to suicide or accidental overdose. There have never been enough effective and accessible programs built into healthcare to promote the safety and wellbeing of healthcare workers. We are only beginning to understand the complex presentations of work-related stress and trauma and we aim to participate in and lead research to discover how to best support individuals who work in high-stress environments.
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In both her personal & professional life, Tabitha embraces activities that bring her joy. She enjoys stand-up paddleboarding, teaching and practicing yoga and waist hula hooping, dancing, going on road trips, and attending live music events. Tabitha is deeply committed to her community (both Healthcare and Atlanta) and is passionate about mindfulness, lifestyle medicine, and stress reduction practices. Tabitha works in integrative medicine and has also studied massage, Pranic Healing energy medicine, Emotional Freedom Technique, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and psychedelic-assisted therapies. She studies Yoga with her Teacher Swami Jaya Devi at Kashi Atlanta and teaches a Yoga Hooping class where she explores strength, stability, balance, play, yoga, and other somatic practices. Helping others experience wellness and wholeness has been a personal mission for Tabitha throughout her career and she is looking forward to expanding all of this experience in the service of her healthcare worker colleagues. Tabitha has two grown children who also live in Atlanta, and she shares her home with three bossy cats.