When The University of New Mexico Hospital’s Critical Care Tower (CCT) opens Oct. 5, patients will be cared for with some of the most advanced medical technology available. Every floor will be filled with art, natural sunlight and teams of health professionals ready to help.
But there is one floor of the CCT that patients will not be able to enter, available only to staff, providers, and trainees. The fourth floor, known as the Sky Campus, is a space dedicated to educational opportunities and employee wellbeing.
“When we designed the Critical Care Tower, we knew we had to create a space that gave our teams an opportunity to recharge and a dedicated learning environment for those training with us,” said UNM Hospital CEO Kate Becker. “I hope our investment in the Sky Campus signals to all our employees and trainees that we care about their wellbeing, we want them to feel rested and we want them to have a place where they can re-center. When we care for ourselves, we have more capacity to care for others.”
The creation of the Sky Campus should send a message to our staff and trainees: ‘Your wellbeing is important,’ and that’s really key. One of the things we know about burnout is that the more opportunity you have to be able to have some control over your time and your environment, or about what’s going on, that leads to greater satisfaction, and that leads to less burnout. This kind of a space helps to provide that.
- Steve Nuanez, Director, Employee Wellbeing & Engagement, UNM Hospital
The Sky Campus is a multi-use space. Employees will be able to grab meals and snacks from one of several eating lounges. Resident physicians training at UNM Hospital will be able to rest in 22 private rooms, providers and staff will be able to use thousands of lockers to securely store personal items and to dress in and out of work scrubs, and much of the floor is dedicated to meeting rooms for educational purposes.
As New Mexico’s largest teaching hospital, UNM Hospital ensured the CCT has ample spaces for training and meetings. The Sky Campus will have several multipurpose rooms, available by checkout, to allow students and trainees to learn in these educational settings. The level is called the Sky Campus because this floor really is an extension of the learning environment of the UNM Health Sciences Center.
“Part of bringing our full self to work is increasing our capacity, and part of the way that we do that is through training and through opportunities to learn more and do more, so that when we return to patient care, we feel like we come to it with a lot more capability and a lot more ability to do good for our patients,” Nuanez said. “That’s why people get into health care. That’s the meaning for them, and being able to get training is really helpful.”
The Sky Campus features a dining area for employees with kitchen appliances and a lot of natural lighting. Photo Credit: Tom Szymanski
The Sky Campus lounge will have several food options for employees. Photo Credit: Tom Szymanski
This floor also features multiple conference rooms equipped with technology for hybrid meetings. Photo Credit: Tom Szymanski
There are also rooms with beds for employees to rest on breaks and in between shifts. Photo Credit: Tom Szymanski
If the COVID-19 pandemic taught hospital administrators anything, it’s that they need to pay close attention to provider burnout. According to research published by the National Institutes of Health, 50% of health providers nationwide reported experiencing symptoms related to burnout in the last decade, which is significantly higher than the general population. Both medical students and graduate medical education trainees have also reported a similar trend of exhaustion.
“Health care workers are often in demand while in the hospital and work continuously,” said Steve Nuanez, director of Employee Wellbeing and Engagement at UNM Hospital. “In that kind of environment, our teams really need to have a place where they can get rest and respite. Our teams need a culture that’s really supporting them. That’s what we’re trying to do here—make sure that that culture exists.”
Nuanez’s team will be present in the Sky Campus. By having an office there, he said the Employee Wellbeing and Engagement team will be able to quickly provide resources and support to any member of the health care team who may need it.
“The creation of the Sky Campus should send a message to our staff and trainees: ‘Your wellbeing is important,’ and that’s really key,” Nuanez said. “One of the things we know about burnout is that the more opportunity you have to be able to have some control over your time and your environment, or about what’s going on, that leads to greater satisfaction, and that leads to less burnout. This kind of a space helps to provide that.”
When health care providers are satisfied, they have a greater ability to provide for those in their care, making the Sky Campus a direct investment in patient care.
