How STHS gives its COVID-19 nurses a taste of ‘Almost Home’
Clean hospital scrubs are laid out for COVID-19 nurses and other healthcare workers at St. Tammany Health System. The scrubs, donated to the hospital, are part of its ‘Almost Home’ room, a spa-inspired space designed to give COVID-19 nurses and other healthcare workers a quiet, soothing place to change into clean clothes and recharge their batteries before heading home for the day. (Photo by Mike Scott)
By Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org
St. Tammany Health System’s Natalie Amsbaugh chose to work with patients who have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. It’s difficult, but she’s a registered nurse -- and nurses don’t generally back down from difficult.
Her 10-year-old son, on the other hand, didn’t sign up for this, and so he’s understandably unnerved about what she might unintentionally bring home with her when she leaves work each day.
“He Googled far too much stuff about the coronavirus, and he was nervous. He was scared,” Amsbaugh said. “He’s like, ‘Are you going to get me sick?’ ‘Am I going to get sick?’ ‘Does that make me die?’”
Amsbaugh, of course, takes every precaution to make sure she doesn’t bring the virus home. The last thing she’d want is to infect her son or any of the other four children she shares with her boyfriend.
But that terrible thought lingered.
To ease the minds of her and other healthcare workers like her, St. Tammany Health System recently set up what it’s calling its “Almost Home” room, a spa-inspired space that provides nurses and other healthcare workers at the Covington hospital with a place to change out of their scrubs, recharge their batteries and reclaim a little peace of mind each day as they prepare to head home to their families.
“(It’s) a way to give back to those who are taking care of our extra-special patients during this difficult time,” said STHS’s Blair Craig, a clinical quality coordinator tasked with putting the Almost Home room together.
“They are in a high-stress environment for many hours of the day,” Craig continued. “And so we have Hibiclens (antibacterial) scrub they can use to do really good hand hygiene. We have some scrubs that were graciously donated to the hospital that they can have and keep and change into before they go home. So, it’s in essence a place for them to really take off the clothes of the day and kind of refresh before they enter home.”
This isn’t just some makeshift locker room, though.
In addition to four changing rooms – which are actually private patient bays ordinarily used for overflow in the hospital’s Post-Anesthesia Care Unit – the Almost Home space is filled with items intended to lift spirits, from the soft lighting and soothing spa music softly playing on a stereo system to the inspirational quotes and photos from the community lining the walls to the balloon bouquets adorning various corners and the complimentary bottled water and candy.
It also gives nurses a chance to visit with one another away from one of the hospital’s COVID units, however briefly, and lend one another the kind of support that only another nurse can truly understand.
“When you’re on one of these special units, you’re dressed in full PPE all day and there’s very little social interaction,” Craig said. “So, at the end of a shift, you’ll see various amounts of socializing before we go home. … It really does take a village to accomplish the world-class healthcare that we have at St. Tammany Health System.”
For Amsbaugh, that means something.
“I leave wearing nothing that I came with, so that’s a big deal to me,” she said. “Just being able to do it in a place that’s not contaminated, not doing it in the same bathroom that I just walked into dirty -- that’s a big deal. It is nice.”
She’s not the only one who thinks so. Shortly after the room was put together, Craig said, nurses from one of the hospital’s COVID units were brought in to check it out. There were nearly moved to tears, she said.
“That’s why I’m here doing what I do: to give back to them, really as a response for the fantastic care they’re giving our patients and our community. It’s kind of a thank-you back to them,” she said, adding, “As we all know, St. Tammany Health System is a community hospital and we do whatever we can to give back to our community in all ways possible, and this is a way to give back to our staff members who continue to provide that world-class healthcare to our patients.”
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Visit STPH.org/COVID-19 for the latest information on coronavirus in St. Tammany Parish.