Taking care of the caregivers at Winnipeg's St. Boniface Hospital

So this is our waiting waiting area. This is where staff can come and wait Thank you so much. for their rest area to be available. Okay, now what do we have to the left of me here? These are our staff favorites. They're two COSIA quantum massage chairs. So they provide a full body massage with 5D roller massages, heat therapy, compression, calf and foot treatment as well. Hi, my name is Alicia Ali. I'm a workplace wellness consultant for St. Boniface Hospital. Why was something like this necessary for staff? Well, after the pandemic, we listened to our staff in our employee opinion survey, and one of the top priorities identified were staff health and wellbeing. So my position was put into place in 2022, and I surveyed staff with a health and wellness survey. And a dedicated space for rest and recovery for our staff and physicians was identified as a priority. Your typical staff that use this, what does their day look like and why can it be so hard during the workday to decompress? We have shift workers in our hospital, so to date we've seen over 4,000 visits from nurses and healthcare aides, so you can imagine it will be challenging for them to get off their shift, but they are making it. So they book. Um, a 30 minute slot on their break or after shift and they come on down and they relax and they reset whatever they need. If they need a massage, they can do that. If they prefer to just lay down and rest, that's available to them too. So we've been open for just over two months and we've seen over 8,600 visits. So that's over 4,000 visits a month in two months. We're seeing people from across the organization. The most usage we see from units is the emergency department, followed by some of our ICUs and medicine units, as well as pharmacy. And how often are they coming, you know, is it a daily thing? Is it, I mean... Yep, right around the clock, Jim. Hi, my name is Tiffany Augustine. I am a diabetes educator and I work also as the education dietitian for the hospital as well. You're in a massage chair here. I am, yes. I have used these, I want to say probably about six or seven times. They're really great. I mean, I think, you know, when we come to health care, we can't control how busy or stressful a day is going to be. So being able to take either a break at lunch or, you know, before or after shifts and that and come and relax is really helpful. I mean, you can't pour from empty cups. So, you know, when I feel relaxed, I can, I think, you know. Work better, communicate better, think better under stressful situations and that. So I imagine before you know a center like this was open, where were you taking your breaks? I mean in my office you know often I'm not going to lie sometimes you're eating lunch and you know looking over emails and that so this also gives you the up like saying you know you have to take a break and being able to do that and utilize that time on breaks and over lunches it's been fantastic it's really improved I think my work. Like I said when we walk into work none of us know what our days are going to be like right some days are easy some days are hard and that's when it comes to health care right we're always in the forefront to put our patients first that is number Number one, but some days can be more challenging than others, you know, on days where I have I've not even had a break to eat or things like that. I can even come here, relax, reset, rejuvenate. And again, I think it improves my work efficiency so much better. I also noticed that there is some artwork beside the recliner chair. Can you tell me about this painting or mural? Yeah, Stantec actually designed the space for us. So this is an image of a woman holding the back of her neck. Probably they might've had imagery of a nurse after a long shift in their mind when designing it. Okay, and you have more recliner chairs over here as well? Yeah, so we often see staff just either sleeping or just laying down on their phone, just taking some quiet rest time for themselves here. And so these treatment tables are used to offer wellness modalities such as reflexology, student massage therapy, and healing touch. So this is... A hot commodity here, it's called a Soki bed. A Soki bed? Yeah, so it's a multi-wellness system combined of this Qi machine here where you put your ankles and it'll shake your body and then you lay down on your back and we cover you in these three infrared heated domes which provide lymphatic flow, circulation, and deep relaxation. Okay, is this a staff favorite? This and the massage chairs, absolutely. Okay. As well as reflexology and student massage. Do you want to try to lay down, Jim? You know what? Why not? Let's try this. We'll just get you to lay down on your back with your ankles in the Qi machine there. Okay, so just lay down. Yes, the Qi machine is going to shake your body. So we want to make sure you don't have a full stomach. We don't have to use the Qi machine. Oh, I will try it. Okay, awesome. And it shakes your body. And what does that do again? It helps with lymphatic flow and circulation. So people who suffer with inflammation in their joints really love this device. And we'll start you off with five minutes on the Qi machine. Let's see how you like it. How about that? Okay, sounds great. Ready? Let's try that. Oh, whoa. And we'll dim the lights for you so you get the full effect of relaxation. Okay. I've never had a single complaint in the Soaky Bed Gym, so I'm sure you're going to enjoy the experience. This is actually quite relaxing. You know, you hear about nurse burnout. You hear about, you know, workers, they are working very hard, especially in our province. Retention, it can be an issue. How does something like this help retain staff? Yesterday I had a staff member tell me she was actually considering starting her own business but because of the new Staff Wellness Centre and the Calm Health app, she's decided to stay at St. Boniface Hospital. It's a huge retention strategy when an organization shows their staff that they're listening and they're doing their best to support their well-being. It speaks volumes and it makes staff want to stay.