Nurses and other employees at Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center now have access to dedicated rooms where they can relax and relieve stress at work.
Staff of Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center in Norfolk, Va., relax in one of the three tranquility rooms the medical center created for employee stress relief.
The "tranquility rooms" that the Norfolk, Va., facility opened in November have electronic massage chairs, aromatherapy oils, soothing music and décor, and televisions for viewing yoga and stress-reduction videos. Employees also have access to free massage therapy a few hours each week.
The hospital has opened three such rooms, each located near some of its busiest units — the emergency department and radiology, surgery, labor and delivery and telemetry units. Bon Secours DePaul used a wellness grant from parent Bon Secours Health System of Marriottsville, Md., to create the rooms.
Bon Secours DePaul nursing staff and wellness team members came up with and implemented the tranquility room idea, in part in connection with the medical center's application for Pathway to Excellence Program accreditation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The center awards the credential to health care and long-term care providers that meet 12 standards that show they've established "positive practice environments where nurses excel," according to information from the center. Applicants in part must demonstrate how they support staff's physical fitness and health and how they provide innovative programs to help staff members care for themselves. (Bon Secours DePaul earned the credential in December.)
While the nursing staff and wellness team created the rooms with nurses in mind, any clinician or staff member can use them. Employees can go before or after their shift, or for 15 minutes during their shift. There are just informal guidelines for using the room — users are asked to be quiet and not bring in food or drinks.
Michael Bratton is Bon Secours DePaul's vice president of patient care services and chief nursing executive. He said the tranquility rooms will complement a "Stress Free Now" program Bon Secours DePaul began offering last year to help ease employees' stress. The six-week course includes educational webinars from the Cleveland Clinic on practical ways to reduce stress. Bratton said that according to surveys, more than 90 percent of Bon Secours DePaul employees who have participated in Stress Free Now say they feel less stress.
The hospital also plans to open a free fitness room for employees.
Pamela Bennett is a nurse and the clinical coordinator of Bon Secours DePaul's 3-South unit, an area that handles a lot of cardiac and stroke patients. She uses the room near her unit about once a week.
She said she is in and out of patient rooms all day "putting out fires."
"It can be very draining and high-stress." She said it can be emotionally taxing to assist an elderly person who must be discharged to a nursing home for the first time in his or her life, or to support a patient who has just received a cancer diagnosis.
Bennett said using the room puts her in a better frame of mind. Living within walking distance of the hospital, she used to "take work home with her" mentally. Now she goes to the room after particularly stressful shifts, to process the day and clear her mind before going home to her family.
"To me, it's like going to a spa, it's so peaceful," she said. "It's the best thing Bon Secours has brought to the nursing staff."
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