Nature for Wellness — Healthcare Initiative

Physician burnout has been declared a public health crisis — and that was before the pandemic.

Today, forward-thinking healthcare institutions are reimagining the ways they support the wellbeing of their physicians, nurses and staff to curb burnout, and at the same time, address other consequential challenges like quality of patient care and rising healthcare costs. Many are finding success through nature: small green spaces creatively embedded on their campuses, accessible to nurses and physicians during their breaks. 

We’ve seen the impact of these spaces first-hand. Over the last 25 years, we’ve partnered with healthcare organizations across the country to infuse green spaces designed for healing and respite — what we call Sacred Places — on their grounds. In fact, we even partnered with one of the most prominent researchers in ‪evidence-based healthcare design to study this approach. The research is clear: nearby nature intervention measurably reduces symptoms of stress and burnout in nurses.

By partnering together, we work to:

• Infuse nature into healthcare campuses in ways that are accessible, welcoming — impactful to health and the bottom line
• Improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of physicians, nurses and staff — reducing stress and burnout
• Improve patient care (reducing, for example, the number of nurse and physician errors)
• Realize cost saving (reducing nurse and physician absences and turnover and the aforementioned errors)
• Promote more rapid patient recovery and provide a more positive patient/hospital care environment and experience
• Negate stress-induced health issues experienced by family of critically ill patients