Planetree

Running head: PLANETREE

Planetree Interviews
Kimberly Nix
Ferris State University

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Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital is located seventy-five miles south of Grand Rapids in a
small rural town known as Reed City. Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital is a twenty-five bed
critical access hospital. The emergency department sees approximately sixteen thousand patients
annually. The hospital is small and the competition is sometimes brutal. Spectrum Health Reed
City Hospital needed something to set them apart from the surrounding hospitals. So, with some
research and dedication came the idea of Planetree. Spectrum Health Reed City Hospitals
mission is to improve the health of the community by serving each individual and family with
superior quality, personal care, their vision is to be the nations highest quality and most
successful health care enterprise by 2010, and their values are compassion, innovation,
excellence, integrity, teamwork and respect. One of the ways that SHRCH is working towards
these goals is through the adoption and integration of the Planetree Philosophy. Spectrum Health
Reed City Hospital believes that to have healthy patients we must first have healthy staff. The
Planetree philosophy reaches beyond the patient level of theory of comfort to the staff that
provides care for the patient. All of the therapies offered to patients are offered to staff to
decrease work overload, stress, and burn-out.

According to Lisa Flint, Director Service Excellence at Spectrum Health Reed City
Hospital, Planetree strives to serve as a catalyst in the development and implementation of new
models of health care which focus on healing and nurturing body, mind and spirit. We have a
great small hospital, and I think Planetree is just what was needed to raise the bar and give
exceptional care all the time. (Flint, 2011). These models integrate human caring with the best
of scientific medicine and complementary healing. Planetree is committed to personalizing,
humanizing, and demystifying the health-care experience and applying those same principles

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patient-centered care. Planetree affiliates, such as Reed City Hospital, focus on building and
sustaining effective relationships with their staffs, patients, families, and communities.
(Planetree, 2008)
According to Barbara Graham, Service Excellence Coordinator, in early 2006, Spectrum
Health Reed City Hospital began implementing changes to reflect the hospitals mission and
vision through collaboration with the Planetree philosophy. Just being part of the pet therapy
program is truly rewarding. Seeing the look on the patients face when I bring my therapy dog
around reminds me how important adding the human aspect to medicine. (Graham, 2011). The
beginning phases were directed toward staff education of the philosophy and changes that other
Planetree facilities had went through on their journey to designation. This was accomplished
through a mandatory retreat off site where staff that never had an opportunity to work together
had the day to learn about Planetree and mix and mingle. Next, planning and redesigning of the
sterile environment to a more homelike atmosphere began to take shape. This was accomplished
through wall art, calming colors painted on the walls, and carpeting in the hallway, waterfalls,
and unit markers that are wooden and identical throughout the hospital.
Lisa Pope, Infection Control Nurse and Employee Health, talks about the final journey in
becoming a Planetree designated hospital. I have never worked at a hospital where you truly
feel like part of the family. Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital really takes pride in their small
hospital and all they have accomplished. (Pope, 2011). The next phases, and considerably the
most important, was encouraging staff to commit to joining one of the 13 Planetree teams that
will in essence creatively find ways to meet the criteria and bring the facility to final Planetree
designation. The Planetree philosophy which basically stated is creating a calm, peaceful, homelike environment for the patient and their families so that their spiritual, cultural, and emotional

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needs are met while in our care. Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital has done such things as
add live plants, fish and turtle tanks, hand-picked photos for the walls, painted and/or wall
papered the rooms in calm, peaceful colors and patterns, and made all of our rooms private but
with an extra bed to encourage a loved one to stay if that is what the patient requests or needs.
Attention to detail is noticeable in the new family room that now has a full kitchen,
stocked refrigerator and all items needed to cook or heat up foods, in the volunteers that come
around daily with hot tea and fresh baked cookies, and the personal touch of a volunteer at the
door to help the patient get to their destination (not by pointing the way but by taking them there
and introducing them to the next person at that point of care). Reed City Hospital has added
amenities such as a music cart with a portable CD player, magazine cart, and a humor cart.
Small gardens have been planted at focal points to stimulate the senses with visual beauty and
fragrance.
To this date, Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital has completed all phases required for
Planetree designation and is awaiting the final review process. The facility should receive
designation in early October of 2011. This facility is truly reflective of Kolcabas Theory of
Comfort as evidenced by their commitment to staff, patients and visitors, and to the Planetree
philosophy for patient-centered care.
The theory of Comfort creates a total or holistic experience for not only the patient and/or the
family but for the staff that serves it. This theory is pivotal in a way that a nurse who is free to
comfort a patient in a personal way is one who is free his/herself of any misconceptions of
nursing. A nurse who has been successful with her shadow work and does daily reflection will
be the kind of nurse that accomplishes comfort care to not only her patients but to herself.

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Anyone can go through the motions of comfort care but a nurse who lives it can truly provide the
kind of deep, personal comfort that this theory implies.
Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital, Planetree, and the Theory of Comfort reflect the
ideals of the other as evidence in this paper. Working at this facility is a joy and learning and
connecting experience on a daily basis. Whether one is taking the time to learn about the comfort
needs of the patient or of their own needs, the collective design of the Theory of Comfort and
Planetree Philosophy of patient-centered care mesh together to enhance each individual
experience in a holistic manner.

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Reference:
Tomey, A. & Alligood, M. (2006). Nursing Theorists and Their Work (6th ed.). St.
Louis: Mosby, Inc.
www.planetree.org
Flint, L. M. (2011, January). Director Service Excellence. (K. M. Nix, Interviewer)
Graham, B. (2011, January). Service Excellence Coordinator. (K. M. Nix, Interviewer)
Pope, L. M. (2011, January). Infection Control and Employee Health. (K. M. Nix, Interviewer)