11.14.2025
Heart of Safety Coalition
Protecting capacity to learn as a focus of wellbeing – Carlton Abner, DNP, RN, NBC-HWC
11.14.2025
Episode 105 | Duration: 29:11
What if we could bridge the divide between healthcare leaders who understand that team member safety and wellbeing is essential and those who view it as nice-to-have with a small shift in focus? That’s what happens when Carlton Abner, DNP, RN, NBC-HWC, reframes wellbeing goals as protecting capacity – whether capacity to learn or teach, perform or recover, or empathize and connect.
In this episode of Caring Greatly, Dr. Abner shares what it means to protect capacity for students at Kansas City University (KCU), including medical students. He shares how important capacity protection is for a generation of students who want to engage differently in their work, with a strong focus on passion and connection.
Dr. Abner's 30+ years of healthcare and leadership experience began as an ER/trauma nurse with the Army where he led interprofessional teams within various healthcare settings around the world. Today he serves as the Vice Provost for Student Engagement and Wellbeing at KCU. In this role, he works to elevate and strengthen the overall culture of student engagement and comprehensive wellbeing strategies.
Before joining KCU, Dr. Abner was the Dean and Lead Faculty for the Veterans Affairs Innovative Technology Advancement Lab at Cerner in Kansas City, Missouri. He recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel from the Kansas Air National Guard, where he was one of only 89 Chief Nursing Executives nationwide, culminating a distinguished 25-year military career.
Dr. Carlton Abner is a leader who cares greatly.
Related links:
- Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, Session 1: Celebrating a Year of Progress
- Book: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt
- Principal Matters podcast: Generation Z Unfiltered with Andrew McPeak
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