Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) – Aromatherapy, yoga mats, and a massage chair are just a few of the items you’ll see when you step inside this wellness and relaxation room for ER nurses over at the Emergency Department at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.
“The Emergency Department is a really high-stress area for our employees, it’ll just be a nice relaxing space that they can go and kind of check out,” said foundation director for Lake Charles Memorial Health System, Nicole Rasco.
As Rasco explains, it’s all thanks to a donation.
“Today, we are having our ribbon cutting because the generous donor PENN, that is our emergency physician partners group, wanted to do something special for our nurses for nurses week,” she said.
The director of the emergency department, Tressy Bergeron, explains the importance of having this for her employees.
“It gives them a chance to come in here and really hone in on some mindfulness and wellness for themselves,” she said. “I think that it’s very important to keep from burnout, and not only nurses, but it’s important across health care, you know, from the CEO to housekeeping.”
Clinical manager, Monica Carroll, tells 7 news how this new room has helped her.
“Mentally, tremendously because you get to escape and kind of get some time to yourself, I think it’s very important for us, as healthcare providers, to take care of ourselves just as well as we take care of the patients,” Carroll said.
With the Omicron variant starting to appear in some states, they tell me they are prepared.
“Hopefully, it won’t be like it was for Delta or the first variant,” she said. “But you know, we keep our supplies in check, and we have our rooms prepared, and when we need to, we can shut down the whole ER and go negative air. So we’re ready for whatever anybody throws our way.”
Rasco says they are looking to do this with additional spaces for some of their other critical care units in the future.
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