This seminar explores how a strategy of "Nursing-Focused Design" is essential to ensure the well-being of those who care for us when we are ill. By far the single largest labor group within the health care system is nurses. Nursing represents approximately 50% of the salary and wages budget of the average community hospital. Nurses will spend more time in their work environment over their career than they will spend in their own homes. Nurses, therefore, have a significant vested interest in how these facilities are designed.

A review of the literature tells us nurses tend to leave their jobs well before mandatory retirement age precisely because their work is dangerous, increasingly difficult, physically demanding, stressful and insufficiently rewarding. When nurses are exhausted and drained, they cannot be expected to provide patients with the optimal quality of care. Addressing the physical and emotional working conditions for this significant proportion of the hospital labor force, therefore, is priority that deserves more than routine consideration.

Designers cannot reduce nursing workload, nor can they reduce the inherent stressful nature of the work. However, they can help create environments that facilitate day-to-day activities that inspire nurses to continue, refresh them when they are down, raise their spirits and keep them safe. Ultimately, nursing focused design can reduce hospital operating costs, improve patient care and help attract and retain nurses.

"Patient-Centered Design" has become the new buzz word in healthcare settings all across the United States and Canada. With the Institute of Medicine including "patient-centeredness" as one of their six pillars of quality care, many hospitals and healthcare systems are looking to implement this approach in their operations, as well as, in their environments. Planetree, a non-profit organization founded by a patient 30 years ago, has worked with hundreds of hospitals in the U.S. and abroad to help them operationalize and implement this strategy. This presentation will provide background on the history of Planetree and its founder and give a cursory understanding of the ten components of the Planetree model of care in healthcare settings. A detailed description of the key aspects of healing design is included in this presentation, demonstrating the need for attention to patient-centeredness during the design and planning process.