By Heather Hogan, BSN, RN; Diane Brady, BSN, RN-C; and Santina Wilson, BSN, RN, PCCN, HN-BC, Shapiro 8 Integrative Care Team

From left, Heather Hogan, Jane Davis, Gary McNabb, Santina Wilson and Diane Brady

In December, we planned a health fair for Shapiro 8 staff with various offerings to reduce stress, promote health and wellness and help staff and patients get into the holiday spirit.

We’ve been providing health fairs on the unit for several years with funding from various research grants. This most recent fair was different in that we used our own resources and talented staff to provide the services.

The December fair featured reiki, pet therapy, music therapy, Pranic healing led by Michaela Maguire, BSN, RN, chair yoga led by Richard Sullivan, BSN, RN, and Tea for the Soul and a blessing of the hands by Holly White of Spiritual Care Services.

We also had a craft table where staff could make cork ornaments, and Santa and Mrs. Claus (Gary McNabb, MSN, RN, and Jane Davis, RN) made an appearance and rounded on the unit to bring holiday cheer to patients. It was a joyous evening of bonding with co-workers in a special way.

We recently completed a research study funded by the Brigham Research Institute to measure whether the health fairs and other wellness initiatives have reduced stress for nurses on Shapiro 8. Based on the positive results of the survey (see below), we plan to continue offering wellness initiatives, such as fairs, to our staff with support from our nurse director Susan Williams.

Survey results include the following:

• 87.5 percent of Shapiro 8 staff said that therapies help decrease their level of stress while working.
• 87.1 percent said they were able to provide better care to their patients.
• 93.8 percent percent would like us to continue providing these therapies.
• 96.9 percent felt the therapies helped provide a better sense of teamwork on the unit.

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