Mercy Medical Center Colleagues Benefit from New Zen Room

SPRINGFIELD — Although colleague resiliency and well-being have always been a focus at Mercy Medical Center, these priorities have gained more importance as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. Over the past 20 months, healthcare workers have been subjected to significant work-related stress, and without some respite, such stress can become overwhelming over time.

After witnessing the distress of colleagues during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, Bradley Harmon, executive director of Mission Integration for Mercy Medical Center, took action. He initiated listening sessions with the staff to better determine how best to respond to the crisis. He also recruited a multi-faceted care team with the appropriate training to improve resiliency among colleagues. The care team uses its collective training in psychology, psychiatry, integrative medicine, mindfulness, and wellness to create programs and initiatives that help bring healing to staff.

“For many of our colleagues, it became traumatic to care for so many gravely ill patients without the ability to help them or offer the comfort of a loved one’s visit,” said Dr. Ari Kriegsman, medical director of Addiction Consultation Services for Mercy Medical Center and a member of the resiliency care team. “My professional career has been focused on working with homeless people and people with substance-use disorders — patients with a very high rate of trauma in their lives. My clinical eye is closely tuned to trauma, and it was in the beginning of the pandemic that I started to see some of these signs in our colleagues. This realization sparked Bradley and I to focus on the resiliency work we have done.”

The care team has been instrumental in the creation of a new zen room for colleagues, which features a full sensory relaxation experience with HD video nature scenes, surround sound, mood lighting, and essential-oil scent diffusion. Participants can create their own stress-reducing experience and location — at a beach, near a waterfall, or out in the forest — by using Google Assistant to select their preference. The zen room also features massage chairs, a yoga area, and renewal space.

“The new zen room is the centerpiece of our resiliency work,” Kriegsman said. “The use of technology to create such a full sensory experience actually ‘fools’ the brain into thinking that you are at the beach or in a field of flowers.” He cited peer-reviewed studies indicating that spending just 15 minutes in a zen room can reduce an individual’s stress level by 60%.

For Harmon, creating the zen room has been a labor of love. “Healthcare workers at every hospital in the country are struggling with some degree of pandemic-related stress,” he said. “I’m so proud that our team at Mercy recognized the issue and has taken steps to ease the burden for our colleagues.”

Mercy’s new zen room was designed and created by Studio Elsewhere, a New York-based firm that uses evidence-based, data-driven practices to develop virtual and physical interventions that promote brain health by easing the impact of trauma while also relieving stress and anxiety.

The zen room was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. By swiping their badge, colleagues may access the room 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For added safety, the room is also equipped with a monitored security camera.