Learning Objective #1: Relate how care for "self" in the workplace affects nursing staff's well-being over a 12-hour shift

Learning Objective #2: Relate nursing administration's application of Watson's Caring Theory to staff nurse satisfaction

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The high tech environment of Critical Care is intense and unpredictable. Nurses must not only be very skilled and technologically competent, but they must also be compassionate and intuitive, and be able to maintain this level of functioning for a 12-hour shift. In many instances patient's families require as much healing as the patient, especially families with unresolved issues (Quinn). In order to provide the transpersonal caring that critically ill patients require, the nurse must be authentically present each time she approaches the patient's bedside (Watson). In the face of increased patient acuity, and decreased staffing, how does the Critical Care Nurse get the inner resources needed to maintain this level of functioning without depleting his/her emotional stores? If an institution is truly committed to a caring philosophy that philosophy must permeate the work place and it must start with nursing administration (Nyberg). The purpose of this study is to show how the application of Watson's Caring Theory at the administrative level creates an environment that promotes nursing staff satisfaction. A healing, meditative “Sacred Space” for nurses was co-created in the Critical Care Unit. After the concept was introduced by the Nurse Manager, the nurses became the driving force. Each staff nurse was solicited for suggestions and contributed to the co-creation. A journal was kept and the nurses recorded their feelings before, during and after the space was created. Photographs recorded the progress of the physical area. As evidenced by the journal entries and staff retention rate, we concluded that when an administration promotes self care for nurses, staff satisfaction and retention is increased. An unexpected outcome of the study was a rise in patient satisfaction scores. This reinforces the theory that “transpersonal caring expands in open, resonating, concentric circles from self to other to planet earth to universe”. Watson.