Linda Ferro-Chartrand, RN at the General Campus Intensive Care Unit, often accompanies patients who are able to leave the unit to wellness areas such as the Butterfly Garden, between the General Campus and the Children\u2019s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.<\/p>\n
Fresh air, open space, and warm sunlight peeking through leaves swaying in a cool breeze. Sometimes taking a walk outside or eating your lunch at a picnic table is just the right medicine \u2013 not only for staff, but also for patients.<\/p>\n
Staying indoors for days on end, hooked to various machines \u2013 deprivation can take a serious toll on patients\u2019 overall wellness.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting patients outside for a while can help them feel like they\u2019re not in a hospital any more. It gives them the break they need,\u201d said Linda Ferro-Chartrand, RN in the General Campus Intensive Care Unit.<\/p>\n
Research<\/a> has found that experiencing nature is directly associated with improved mental health, so wellness areas around the hospital are vitally important. That\u2019s why the new campus will have space allocated for greenspace, gardens, walking paths and contemplative areas. The hospital has committed to an open and transparent engagement process with the Ottawa community to determine how these natural spaces will look at the new campus, among other important issues.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen patients can see something other than the same four walls of their rooms, it\u2019s good for them,\u201d said Ferro-Chartrand. \u201cGetting some sun and fresh air can really boost their mood and change up their thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n When Stanford University researchers<\/a> studied participants after they had experienced a walk through nature, they reported lower levels of rumination \u2013 repetitive thoughts focused on negative aspects of the self, a known factor for mental illness \u2013 and reduced neural activity in the sgPFC, an area of the brain linked to risk for mental illness.<\/p>\n Calming environments can inspire the sense of being away, a mental break that can transform negative psychological states to more positive ones. For staff, this means restoration from attention fatigue<\/a>, which happens after working on tasks that require long periods of directed attention. For patients, experiencing nature can affect the number of symptoms they feel, their perceived general health, and their tendency to fall into mental states of despair.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely going to try and get out more myself and really take advantage of our wellness areas,\u201d said Ferro-Chartrand.<\/p>\n Wellness areas are not only restricted to the outdoors. Kansas State University researchers<\/a> found that patients recovering from surgery with live plants in their rooms had significantly lower systolic blood pressure, ratings of pain, anxiety and fatigue than patients in the control room without plants.<\/p>\n Contact with nature contributes to a healthy workplace, and has a proven major effect on staff. A study at the University of Florida<\/a> found that staff who took breaks outdoors recorded significantly reduced perceived stress and an overall decrease in health complaints.<\/p>\n