Educating Clinical Leaders at the Design Table: 3 Key Points to Start the Design Phase.

As a bedside nurse and nurse leader, Kaycee was an alien on a strange land in a healthcare design role about 7 years ago.  Even after being a nurse manager on a previous new floor project, she didn’t know what was her role was, how hard she should advocate for operational flow and what change orders did late in the project. In her new role, NIHD member Kaycee Shiskowsky has learned to integrate a focus on schedule, budget and clinical operational flow.

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Crafting Comfort: Designing Cancer Center Infusion Spaces to Care for Patients Throughout Their Journey.

Designing an ideal cancer center infusion space requires a thoughtful approach that addresses the complex and varied needs of patients. Cancer treatment, particularly chemotherapy infusions, can be a lengthy and emotionally exhausting process for patients and their families. Therefore, creating an environment that offers privacy, fosters a sense of community, and facilitates intimate family conversations is paramount.

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Is “empathy” the new buzzword in healthcare design?

The idea of empathy in healthcare design and the people involved in that work are important. NIHD President, Kris Krail, suggests the best and easiest way to really get at that would be to involve nurses and other care providers in the process.  Clinicians need to be full members of the design team and well represented in all user groups.

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Celebrating Nurses: The Heart of Healthcare Design.

“Nurses Make the Difference,” is this year’s National Nurse’s week theme. This year’s theme resonates deeply as healthcare design is more than just aesthetics; it’s about creating spaces that nurture healing, support efficiency, and enhance the overall patient experience. By actively engaging nurses in the design process, healthcare facilities can create workflows and environments that are functional and conducive to delivering excellent care.

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How Are You Going to Celebrate Nurses Week?

There are many different ways to recognize and honor one another, certainly on special days but also all year long in ways big and small. So if you are an employer of nurses, if you are a nurse, or if you have a nurse in your family; how are you going to celebrate?

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Insights and Inspirations: Reflecting on My First ASHE PDC Summit

Last month, NIHD Member Andrea Skowronek, RD, MPH, CAPM had the incredible opportunity to attend her first ASHE PDC Summit. Summit sessions were a buffet of practical, actionable advice, exactly what you’d expect from a gathering of top-tier engineers, architects, designers, construction professionals, hospital administrators, and clinicians. Read about the insights she gathered.

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The Quest for Common Ground in Rural and Urban Development: Key Takeaways from the See Change Sessions

See Change Sessions is the collision of unconventional networking and collaboration by labs (workshops) and in-the-moment speaker topics to facilitate change across six different priority, themed areas – Where We Live; Beyond the Stars; Turning the Tide; Breaking the Buzzword; Cultures in Conversation; and Harmony & Dissonance.

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Are you a procrastinator?

Better Homes & Gardens (BHG) has always been one of NIHD President Kris Krail's favorites – lots of pretty pictures, realistic design ideas and good recipes. So, she was somewhat surprised when the first sentence in the “editor’s letter” was I am a procrastinator.

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Collaboration Spaces for Healthcare Teams

During my time as a bedside nurse I recall thinking that teamwork and communication came naturally by just working well with other care team members, and that the patients would naturally benefit from this.   But as I began transitioning my career to patient safety and quality of care through improving teamwork and communication I then realized that there are enablers and barriers to teamwork in the very unit and care areas we work in. 

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From Stress Reduction to Conversation Starters: Infusing the Visual Arts into Healthcare Settings

Art, while decorative, is more than simply a backdrop for medical environments. It is a path towards truly holistic healing and an integral part of our hospital experience. Pulling from evidence-based design research, Antonia Dapena-Tretter uses her background as the Art Curator at Stanford Medicine | Children’s Health, and board member at The National Organization for Arts in Health, to make the case for including artwork commissions and murals in every hospital or clinical space.

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From Clinical Nurse Specialist to Healthcare Operations Planner: Meet Ron Kraus.

At the last HCD Conference, Board member Kevin Meek had an opportunity to work in the NIHD booth with Ron Kraus MSN, RN, CEN, TCRN, ACNS-BC, a Healthcare Operations Planner with BSA LifeStructures. Recently joining the team at BSA LifeStructures in August 2022, Ron brings decades of clinical experience to the healthcare design operations team supporting clients and internal teams.

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Flooring and Integrated Systems in Behavioral Health: Meeting the Challenges.

Behavioral Health is among the fastest growing applications in the healthcare space.  The challenges involved in marrying the performance attributes required of an acute behavioral facility, while also achieving desired aesthetic outcomes, can be daunting. Read more in this blog contribution by Paul McKinney, EDAC, National Healthcare Segment Director, Gerflor USA.

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2024: Finding Purpose in our Community.

2024 will be a challenging year for our healthcare professions and industry, to say nothing about our society, country, and world. Let us together find purpose in our community with one another and in our collective vision to shape the future of healthcare through the engagement and integration of the clinical voice in the planning and design of healthcare environments. 

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