I enjoyed reading "Effective Holistic Approaches to Reducing Nurse Stress and Burnout During COVID-19" (Cultivating Quality, May). However, when the authors explained how, with the agreement of the pilot unit nurses, the unit locker room was converted into a serenity lounge, they said that staff were displaced to share lockers elsewhere. This displacement would necessarily place an outsize burden on nurses for the sake of a space that might not be utilized by all.
Why would the study designers suggest removing the nurses' locker room? Moreover, why would hospital administrators permit this intrusion into nurses' already constricted work space? Readers will likely wonder whether conference or administration space was considered for the pilot setting.
My other issue concerns the expansion of the project to nine other units. In creating serenity lounges on these units, the authors utilized meditation rooms that had been used by visitors prior to the pandemic.
Despite my dismay about these choices, as a nurse working in a large nonprofit teaching hospital, I understand that space is an issue. Moreover, I agree that bedside clinicians need to have serenity space as part of a larger plan to combat burnout and stress.
Jodi Katz, MSHA, BSN, RN
New Haven, CT
Author Linda Kim responds:
While the project team facilitated the process, the unit staff were engaged in the project from the start. It was the unit staff's suggestion to use the locker room as the serenity lounge and to share lockers with their peers in another location. Two years into the project, there have been no issues or dissatisfaction reported by the staff regarding the lack of a physical locker room. In fact, the staff continue to take pride in their serenity space and upgrade the lounge with additional amenities.
Regarding the visitor meditation rooms, we made alternate space available to accommodate our visitors (conference rooms, the chapel), and this practice will continue even with future changes to the hospital's visitor policy.
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