Skip to main content
Chamberlain University, College of Nursing and Health Professionals
Menu

Main navigation redesign

  • Programs
    • Bachelor's Programs
      • Nursing
        • Bachelor Of Science in Nursing (BSN)
        • Bachelor of Science in Nursing Online
        • RN to BSN Option
      • BSN Campus Locations
        • Phoenix, AZ
        • Irwindale, CA
        • Sacramento, CA
        • Jacksonville, FL
        • Miramar, FL
        • Atlanta, GA
        • Addison, IL
        • Chicago, IL
        • Tinley Park, IL
        • Indianapolis, IN
        • New Orleans, LA
        • Troy, MI
        • St. Louis, MO
        • Las Vegas, NV
        • Charlotte, NC
        • North Brunswick, NJ
        • Cleveland, OH
        • Columbus, OH
        • Houston, TX
        • Irving, TX
        • Pearland, TX
        • San Antonio, TX
        • Tysons Corner, VA
    • Master’s Programs
      • Nursing
        • Master Of Science in Nursing (MSN)
        • Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner
        • Family Nurse Practitioner
        • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
        • Graduate Certificates
        • RN to MSN Options
      • Healthcare Professions
        • Master of Public Health
        • Master of Physician Assistant
        • Master of Social Work
    • Doctorate Programs
      • Nursing
        • Doctor of Nursing Practice
    • Certificates
      • Nursing
        • Nursing Certificates
      • Healthcare Professions
        • Public Health Certificate
  • Admission
    • Resources
      • Academic Calendar
      • Academic Catalog
      • Curriculum Plans
    • Become a Student
      • Military Information
      • Transfer Students
  • Financial Aid
    • Tuition & Financial Aid
      • Tuition and Expenses
      • Types of Financial Assistance
      • Financial Aid Forms
      • Partnerships
    • Scholarships and Grants
      • Scholarships
      • Grants
      • Work Study
      • Loans
      • Educational Healthcare Partners
  • Why Chamberlain
    • Our Story
      • History
      • Our Vision
      • Chamberlain Care
      • Diversity and Inclusion
    • About Chamberlain
      • Leadership and Faculty
      • Campus Locations
      • Newsroom
      • Blog
      • Accreditation
      • Student Consumer Information
      • Alumni

Mobile Secondary Navigation

  • Apply
  • Request More Info
  • Request More Info
  • Call
  • Apply
  • Request Info
  • Request Info

Mobile Utility Navigation

  • Current Students
  • Prospective Students
  • Transfers
  • Military
  • Alumni
  • Partners
  • Employers

Top Utility Navigation

  • Current Students
  • Information For
    • Current Students
    • Prospective Students
    • Transfers
    • Military
    • Alumni
    • Partners
    • Employers
  • Chat
  • 877.751.5783
Chamberlain University, College of Nursing and Health Professionals

Main navigation redesign

  • Programs
    • Bachelor's Programs
      • Nursing
        • Bachelor Of Science in Nursing (BSN)
        • Bachelor of Science in Nursing Online
        • RN to BSN Option
      • BSN Campus Locations
        • Phoenix, AZ
        • Irwindale, CA
        • Sacramento, CA
        • Jacksonville, FL
        • Miramar, FL
        • Atlanta, GA
        • Addison, IL
        • Chicago, IL
        • Tinley Park, IL
        • Indianapolis, IN
        • New Orleans, LA
        • Troy, MI
        • St. Louis, MO
        • Las Vegas, NV
        • Charlotte, NC
        • North Brunswick, NJ
        • Cleveland, OH
        • Columbus, OH
        • Houston, TX
        • Irving, TX
        • Pearland, TX
        • San Antonio, TX
        • Tysons Corner, VA
    • Master’s Programs
      • Nursing
        • Master Of Science in Nursing (MSN)
        • Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner
        • Family Nurse Practitioner
        • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
        • Graduate Certificates
        • RN to MSN Options
      • Healthcare Professions
        • Master of Public Health
        • Master of Physician Assistant
        • Master of Social Work
    • Doctorate Programs
      • Nursing
        • Doctor of Nursing Practice
    • Certificates
      • Nursing
        • Nursing Certificates
      • Healthcare Professions
        • Public Health Certificate
  • Admission

    Admission

    Our team is with you every step of the way, providing the information you need to make the decisions that best serve you.

    • Resources
      • Academic Calendar
      • Academic Catalog
      • Curriculum Plans
    • Become a Student
      • Military Information
      • Transfer Students
    smiling doctor with a young child
    Find My Program

    Find the path to your healthcare career goal.

  • Financial Aid

    Financial Aid

    Get support as you navigate paying for your education. Request information to connect with our admission team to discuss your financial options.

    • Tuition & Financial Aid
      • Tuition and Expenses
      • Types of Financial Assistance
      • Financial Aid Forms
      • Partnerships
    • Scholarships and Grants
      • Scholarships
      • Grants
      • Work Study
      • Loans
      • Educational Healthcare Partners
    smiling doctor with a young child
    Find My Program

    Find the path to your healthcare career goal.

  • Why Chamberlain

    Why Chamberlain

    Chamberlain University has a 130-year history preparing extraordinary nursing graduates and healthcare professionals. 

    • Our Story
      • History
      • Our Vision
      • Chamberlain Care
      • Diversity and Inclusion
    • About Chamberlain
      • Leadership and Faculty
      • Campus Locations
      • Newsroom
      • Blog
      • Accreditation
      • Student Consumer Information
      • Alumni
    smiling doctor with a young child
    Find My Program

    Find the path to your healthcare career goal.

Secondary Header Navigation

  • Apply
  • Request More Info
  • Request More Info
  • Call
  • Apply
  • Request Info
  • Request Info

Featured

Man in blue sweater sitting
Breaking Barriers in Social Work:…
Social worker standing in bright office with green plants by the windows
Qualities of a Great Social Worker
social worker speaking to a child
10 Reasons to Be Proud You're a…

Tags

Browse articles by category
Alumni
Campus News
Careers
Health Professions
Nursing Today
Tips for Students

Share

Blog Social Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Home / Blog / Nursing Today / Providing a Lifesaving Prescription for Healthcare Workers

Providing a Lifesaving Prescription for Healthcare Workers

August 03, 2020 by Mary Beth Sammons
Lauren Henry

A 10-year veteran critical care nurse, Lauren Leigh Henry has seen herself and her peers lose patients whose families they have come to love, agonize if everything possible had been done after a Code Blue, and struggle to support themselves after a particularly grueling and heart-wrenching shift.

Working in the ICU COVID-19 wing of one of the hardest-hit Los Angeles County hospitals, the Chamberlain graduate and Trabuco Canyon, Calif., resident says the brutality of the pandemic has caused the emotional toll for front line workers to implode.

“I've spent the last 10 years of my career between adult and pediatric critical care and have never seen more instances of burnout, emotional exhaustion, moral stress, anxiety and depression than right here in our field,” Henry, a specialist in the area of traumatic stress and psychology, wrote in a recent LinkedIn post. “With COVID-19 adding a great degree of stress to our entire healthcare system, these instances are coming to an ugly head.”

To that end, she has created “Safe Space for Healthcare Heroes,” a Facebook community that offers exactly that. The group holds weekly Zoom support calls: Covid-19: Safe Space for Healthcare Heroes. Through the calls, Henry and a community of volunteer, heart-centered physicians, psychologists, therapists, life coaches “and even a healthcare attorney,” discuss mental health tools and practices and listen if healthcare workers want to vent and have their voices be heard. In roughly one month of holding weekly calls, the group’s ranks grew to more than 250.

Since the outbreak started, Henry says she has watched as the demands of her job have changed in ways she never could have imagined.

In addition to trying to support front line healthcare workers who are increasingly getting stressed and torn by their desire to want to do more,  Henry is very concerned about the gut-wrenching pain patients and their loved ones are undergoing because of the strict no visitor policies in hospitals across the country, which separates them at a time when they need each other most.

“With all of our protective gear, it’s hard to make that special connection to the person at the other end of the many tubes and lines,” she says. “We had one patient who had a heart attack and was super agitated and combative. It seemed like even more so than being angry, he probably was very scared. I am certified in PTSD and trauma training and so I went into his room and just by letting him talk and listening to him it helped him calm down and I think he eventually started to feel safe again. He even started joking about what his wife would do if she knew he was giving the nurses a hard time. But COVID has changed the way nurses connect with their patients because it has created this culture where it is best to minimize the time spent in the patient’s room.  That’s just difficult, for the patient and for the nurse. And, that doesn’t even begin to touch upon the pain the patient’s family is going through.  It’s also difficult that we don’t really get to spend much time getting to know our patients, either, especially not having the families there to advocate for them.” 

That’s when she created “Because We Care,” a one-page sheet for nurses and healthcare professionals to use as a tool to personalize the patient experience. The sheet asks questions including: who is their support person; how many children and grandchildren they have; what kind of music they like to be relaxed (and to get them up and going); a fun fact about them and more.

“It’s also potentially helpful for our intubated ICU patients as well because we have more things to ask about than the usual: “Can you wiggle your toes? We can also play someone’s favorite music or TV channel to help our sedated patients be more relaxed and at ease. “

When Henry saw a patient alone in her room coding and the hospital staff was outside the room not going in to do CPR, she started crying.
“She wasn’t an older lady or anything, but I could see the look on her face,” she says. “It’s also really hard to be a caring, compassionate nurse and have to be told ‘we’re not coding patients.’ That is against our very nature.”

“I knew I had to do something,” she says. “The height of COVID felt like a war zone and we need to be talking about what it feels like to be in a war zone. We train soldiers on how to deal with emotional stress before combat, and I believe we need to be training nurses on how to navigate these emotional challenges as well.”

Perhaps the silver lining of the pandemic is that COVID-19 has shown and is spotlighting the raw emotional hardships nurses endure. Only now they are so omnipresent and so clear to see how the trauma is so intense, says Henry.

“We have to find ways to help healthcare workers deal with this,” she says. “People should not be dying alone, and nurses should not have to watch that happen. I never thought of myself as a really great nurse, but now I see how important holding a hand can be, smiling and being there for a patient beyond the medical care.”

For the long term, Henry hopes the Facebook community and the concept of emotionally supporting and training healthcare workers is an idea that will explode and be adopted widely. She hopes the conversations will encourage hospitals to start implementing programs to help their staff rebuild their staff’s resilience.

In the meantime, she says she’s hunkering down with her own self-care practice which includes hiking the trails near her home, “really getting out in nature helps,” and “giving myself time to cry, to have a really good ugly cry and feel all the feelings I need to. That’s the only way I can feel light again. And, I also think it is really important for nurses to reach out and find the people in their lives who can really support them,” she says.

And she recommends lots of baths with Epsom salts and candles and singing.

“I love to sing and play the piano,” she says. “Being creative is really, really important.”


Appreciative and Thankful

We appreciate your commitment to the continued well-being of our Chamberlain community and support during this unprecedented time. Please visit the Chamberlain University website for the latest updates regarding COVID-19.

We thank and honor all healthcare workers through our Care for Caregivers website as well as the Chamberlain Wall of Gratitude and thank-you message.

By Mary Beth Sammons

More from Nursing Today

View all >
chamberlain conversations with Karen Cox, president of chamberlain university
Chamberlain Conversations – Educational Justice for All: A…
Read more
nursing student discounts and deals
Nurses Week Deals & Discounts for 2022
Read more
woman on computer
RN to BSN Cost: How to Find The Best RN to BSN Tuition Rate
Read more
chamberlain nursing student in scrubs
Chamberlain Student Macartie St. Louis: Small Steps, Heroic…
Read more
Show more >

Request More Information

To receive the Chamberlain University Program Guide, including associated career paths, please select a program of study.

Chamberlain University, College of Nursing and Health Professionals

Secondary Footer Navigation

  • Apply
  • Request More Info
  • Request More Info
  • Call
  • Apply
  • Request Info
  • Request Info

Student Portal Login

Main Campus
Addison Campus
1221 North Swift Road
Addison, IL 60101 

National Management Offices
500 W. Monroe St, Suite 1300
Chicago, IL 60661

All Campus Locations
Contact

Footer Menu Column 1

  • Online Programs
  • Master of Physician Assistant Studies
  • Alumni Association
  • Chamberlain Marketplace
  • Military
  • Leadership
  • Catalog & Viewbook

Footer Menu Column 2

  • Student Portal
  • Student Consumer Info
  • Accreditation
  • Parent Organization
  • CA Performance Fact Sheets
  • CA BPPE Annual Report
  • CA BPPE Website

Footer Menu Column 3

  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Online Cookie Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
  • Accessibility
  • Student Disability Services
  • Office of Equity and Access

Footer Social Media Navigation

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

2022 Chamberlain Universtiy LLC. All rights reserved.

Footer Menu Line 1

  • Online Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use

*140,000 Chamberlain students, alumni and faculty

† Chamberlain University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (www.hlcommission.org), an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. The baccalaureate degree program in nursing, master’s degree program in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice program and post-graduate APRN certificate program at Chamberlain University are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, ccneaccreditation.org. The Chamberlain University Doctor of Nursing Practice (delivered via distance education) is accredited by the National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation (NLN CNEA) located at 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20037 (202-909-2526). Chamberlain University’s Master of Public Health Program is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, www.ceph.org. For the most updated accreditation information, visit chamberlain.edu/accreditation. Chamberlain University’s Master of Social Work degree program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation, www.cswe.org. The Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. has granted Accreditation-Provisional status to the Chamberlain University Physician Assistant Program. 

To report unresolved complaints to the Illinois Board of Higher Education visit their webpage at https://complaints.ibhe.org/ or by mail to 1 N. Old State Capitol Plaza, Suite 333, Springfield, IL 62701-1377. View Chamberlain's complaint process.

Chamberlain University confers online degrees from its Main Campus in Addison, IL.

Chamberlain University is a member of Adtalem Global Education, Inc. www.adtalem.com
©2022 Chamberlain University LLC. All rights reserved.