For all the nurses who have wished they could help design a hospital, Theresa Meyers, MS, RN, CEN, has a message: it's possible.

As the director of construction for two new Colorado facilities, Meyers oversees 220 employees, tens of thousands of square feet of hospital space, and plenty of veteran construction workers whose prior contact with a nurse may have been limited to getting a few stitches in the ED.

Meyers was already known as a champion of allowing families to be present during resuscitation and invasive procedures and spearheaded research supporting the practice (see the February 2000 and the May 2001 issues).

She never expected to be involved in designing and constructing the two buildings in the Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs. She had been working with the health system as the director of emergency, trauma, and critical care services since 2001 when the director of construction position became available. She got the job because, she says, "they saw a need for nursing to have more involvement in construction-[to act as] sort of a liaison between architect and builder. The position came open, and although I didn't have a background in construction management, they wanted a nurse with leadership skills."

With a resume that includes 25 years of ED and trauma nursing in the military and private sector, Meyers knew what makes an ED work. She had already been at Memorial Hospital for four years and had participated in preliminary planning for its new $74 million facility, which opened in April, and the $93 million facility that recently opened its 68-bed ED.

Meyers understands nurses frustrated by too little storage space, improper lighting, and too much carpeting.

"I recommend that anyone building a hospital have a nurse on board," she says. One of the simplest but most difficult issues to convey to hospital architects is where things go. Meyers was able to tell them.

"Hospitals need storage, but that's what always gets cut," she says.

Also, she says, "one of the features of our ED is a large resuscitation room across the hall from two waiting rooms, and a separate viewing room for use if a patient dies."

Atmosphere is an important part of a hospital's design, especially if a loved one is lost. "Family members can stay with the patient afterward while the team gets a separate resuscitation room ready for the next patient," Meyers explains.

"We also have a behavioral unit-a locked unit for intoxicated or suicidal patients-as well as a separate entrance for people who have been driving while intoxicated," she says. "It's much quieter than the typical ED."

Design has been only one part of her job. As director of construction, she oversees maintenance, power plants, environmental services, clinical engineering, security, and emergency management. She also helps to recruit nurses.

"It's a challenge in a small community to find nurses," Meyers says. "There's probably a need for about 100 more."

And she has been able to communicate with many of the construction workers the reasons for needing certain design characteristics that make their jobs more difficult, such as curved walls and circular pods for nursing stations so that nurses don't have to walk as far to patients.

As she dons the hard hat, however, she's never too far from her days in nursing.

"I felt guilty for leaving nursing after 25 years," Meyers says, "but I have a lot to contribute to nursing by helping to design hospitals."

David Belcher