The inaugural issue of NURSES FIRST is a perfect place
to discuss how nurses can influence their environment by
creating their workspace design with efficient patient care
in mind. While numerous research studies on healing environment
experiences have been conducted to help find out
what makes the best environment for patients, few studies
have examined what makes the best environment for the
nurses who take care of the patients. More than 70.5% of
the nation’s nurses reported acute and chronic effects of
stress and overwork as one of their top concerns in a 2001
survey by the American Nurses Association (Houle, 2001).
As hospitals deal with the increasingly competitive market
for nurses, the nursing shortage, and an aging nursing
workforce population, attention has recently been focused
on creating enriching environments for nurses and other
caregivers as well as for patients.