Five Minute Consult

Constance D. Hill, MSN, RN
Director, Pulmonary, Allergy, Transitional Care Unit
Children's Memorial Hospital
Chicago

Hospital shifts can be grueling. So the nursing staff at 274-licensed-bed Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, with the help of a $15,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, started a program that offers employees therapeutic services to encourage staff members to stop and take a break, says Constance D. Hill.

Hill: We are trying to create opportunities of respite for the staff so that they have time to rejuvenate. By the time most of our nurses complete their 12-hour shift, they are doing good just to drive home or prepare for their next day. We figured if we brought the resources to them, it would lighten their day.

We have a massage therapist who comes to the inpatient units three days a week. We are at an 86% participation rate. We were able to implement it throughout all of the inpatient units—including critical care. Now it's in the ED, radiology, ambulatory clinic, environmental services, and food services.

This is a yearly program, so twice a month you know the massage therapist is going to hit your floor. Some people have clocked out and just waited for her to come.

—Carrie Vaughan