Linda Stetter: Hello again. Chaplain Linda here to chat about the emerging number of hospitals that are incorporating serenity rooms to help caregivers relax, reflect and renew their focus in private spaces a few minutes at a time.

In the 1990s, Federal Express won the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award and I spent part of a summer touring the Kansas City Terminal to find out how they became tops in quality and customer satisfaction. Their motto was people, service, profit. Their logic was that if they took care of their people first and always, then they would provide great service and a healthy bottom line would result. It's been a winning quality model for decades.

The most impressive space I toured was the call center, where customer service agents answered hundreds of calls per minute to schedule services and resolve deliveries that went amiss. Senior leadership realized that this frontline customer service center was critical to the customers impressions of Federal Express and their likelihood of continuing to use and recommend services to others. They also realized that the call center was the department with the lowest paid employees but the highest stress levels in the entire company. Because they passionately cared about their people first, the call centers were more poshly and comfortably furnished than even the C suite. Of course, a break room offered beverages and snacks, but behind all that, there was a quiet room where customer service agents could seek refuge after unusually stressful calls or shifts. Leadership said that de-stressing for short periods of time sustained their people's resilience, focus, and emotional health, and decreased employee turnover.

Federal Express was prophetically ahead of their time, for hospitals are now discovering the necessity post pandemic for creating work environments that reduce anxiety, compassion fatigue, absenteeism and job dissatisfaction.

As healthcare facilities, we focus relentlessly on making patient spaces as comfortable as possible. So, why not do the same thing for our own caregivers? It's the principle that airlines endorse. Put on your own oxygen mask before you put a mask on the person you are helping.

Well-designed serenity spaces are popping up in hospitals nationwide. In North Richland Hills, Texas, rooms contain massage chairs, peaceful blue lighting, and screens showing peaceful scenes. Rooms are open 24/7 for caregivers to access. A statewide project in Missouri at Bon Secours Health resulted in rooms with treadmills, inspirational reading material and preloaded relaxation apps on tablets. In Buffalo, a room was created to complement the outdoor healing garden. Other hospitals have opted for beautiful artwork, inspirational posters, stations for worry jars, love notes, prayer requests, art therapy, personal journaling, resources, hopeful notes, yoga stretching, aromatherapy, and expressions of gratitude. Rooms are furnished to appeal to all five senses.

Possibilities are unlimited when explored through the lens of thoughtful anticipation and creative vitality. Establishing serenity rooms is not just a nice thing to do. Ongoing research is validating that even if caregivers use a room for 10 or fewer minutes before, during, or after shifts, they experience significant positive outcomes.

One study documented in the journal Nursing in 2020 revealed that 13% of caregivers returned to work feeling extremely focused and renewed. Another 31.6% felt very focused and renewed, and 26.3% felt moderately focused and renewed.

Why am I bringing the topic of Serenity Rooms to light? Well, Annual Spiritual Care Week is in October, and the theme this year is Mental Health: It's Healthy To Get Help. As a gift to our selfless, amazing caregivers, the Spiritual Care Department will be creating some Serenity Spaces in the hospital for caregivers to experience all during the week. Our message is mental, physical, and emotional health is important. So, it's okay to tuck some self help in every day. Who knows, if these rooms are well received, perhaps we might be able to design some permanent serenity space.

If you have ideas about what you would like to see included in a serenity space, I'd love to hear about them. Catch me in the hall, send an email, or leave me a voicemail.

I'm excited about the celebration and education that happens during Spiritual Care Week, and I invite you to join me in being excited about the possibilities that Spiritual Care offers at SJRMC, not only during Spiritual Care Week, but year round.

 Until next time, thank you so much for listening in today, and I hope you have a pleasant and unstressful rest of your shift.