On the second floor in the south tower of Monument Health Rapid City Hospital, near the Emergency Department elevators, there is a tiny alcove. Empty and unremarkable most times of the year, this little area has this summer been the temporary home of some noteworthy guests–plants.
Cat Hintz, RN, and Savanna Sewell, RN, both in the Nurse Residency Program in the Heart and Vascular Unit, brought in these plants to see if it would help improve the mood of people who come to sit in this second floor elevator vestibule.
“At the very beginning of residency, we were told that we would be doing an evidence-based project. And that’s when we had the idea to focus on eco-therapy or plant therapy, to see if it benefits our staff, patients and everyone else,” Cat says. Her and Savanna’s mutual experience as plant parents–Cat has 11 plants at home, Savanna, has 7–led to their partnership and has guided their thinking about creating this refuge of sorts within their department. “When you’re feeling down and you don’t have any place to go, usually you want to get outside, right? Why? It’s because there’s life. There’s living things. This is kind of the equivalent of that, but inside,” says Cat.
Local businesses Jolly Lane Greenhouse and The Plant Smyth loaned Cat and Savanna plants to allow their project to run from June 24 to August 24. The nurses named it “Rise and Sunshine.”
“Plants just add color to your life. We thought that with these big windows and all the sunshine that comes in through the day, it would be an awesome spot for plants to thrive, and also for staff and whoever else wanders over here to spend some time in this uplifting environment,” explains Savanna. “So that’s the reason for the name, to ‘rise up and come join the sunshine’ with the plants and feel alive again.”
Cat and Savanna even come in on their days off to care for these plants. The process is similar to how they care for a patient on their rounds: checking on their status and mood, meeting their needs, improving conditions to the best of their ability. It’s reflective of the role Monument Health plays in nurturing Cat and Savanna as caregivers and supporting their growth as nurses.
To avoid any possible allergen factor, the nurses focused on acquiring plants that don’t flower. “We’ve been using air-purifying, mold-reducing hypoallergenic plants for anybody who might have allergies. The plants here are pothos, philodendrons, palms, snake plants, spider plants, they’re all plants that are supposed to help purify the air,” says Cat, Her personal favorite plant in the project is a split-leaf palm, while Savanna prefers prayer plants. “Some of them are purple and green. So it adds just a little bit more color when we’re limited to non-blooming plants. We also have these beautiful money trees (Guiana chestnut). Nice and green and tall,” she says. The small trees sport a curiously braided trunk and are called money trees because there is a legend that if you keep one thriving, you will be rewarded with financial abundance.
The project, however, isn’t an exercise in mere aesthetics; there is an evaluation component to the project, as Monument Health caregivers are asked to self-report any changes in their feelings. “We’re having the staff write their mood on a scale from 1 to 10 before they come in to sit with the plants and then sit however long they wish, and then fill out that same survey and see if it improved,” says Cat.
“So far, the staff has been absolutely loving it, even if they’re just coming over here and taking a minute to just stand in the sunshine and just be in this environment, take a few deep breaths, kind of reorient themselves. A lot of people are saying that it’s helping them get through their workday,” Savanna.
Cat and Savanna are nurses just blossoming into their careers, but they find the plants to be fairly unfussy as patients. “Each plant has different needs. Some plants like really wet soil and some plants like dry soil. Thankfully, with these plants, you water the soil when it’s dry, and then you let it be,” Cat explains. Adds Savanna: “They’re very forgiving, which I like.”
Started on June 24, the Rise and Sunshine project does have an approaching end date. “We have two months to collect the data that we’ve collected and organize it and then we’ll be presenting it at the end of our nurse residency,” says Cat. After August 24, the plants will be returned to their nurseries, where they will go on sale to find new homes.
Story: Kory Lanphear
Photos: Robert Slocum
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