Forest bath therapy for nurses from slovak private hospital in Carpathian beech forests

By project GREENHEALTH

Published on 11 July 2024

Slovakia

Východné Slovensko

About this good practice

Stay in the natural environment can help protect against health problems, or even treat them. Protected areas across Europe have excellent prerequisites for supporting the health of people and are unique places of relaxation or places for active rest through outdoor activities. Especially in recent decades, stress has become an inevitable part of people's lives. Studies across the population link chronic stress to heart disease, diabetes or depression. More and more people experience chronic stress. This is reflected not only in our mental, but also in our physical health. Many times this can even lead to burnout itself. Burnout syndrome is most often associated with helping professions, professions with a high degree of stress and responsibility and those working with people. It is the first group that has experienced a lot of stress and frustration in the last years of the COVID 19 pandemic, and they need to take more care of their physical and mental health in order to endure this difficult time. And that was one of the reasons why the director of one of the hospitals in our region decided to help his employees - nurses, feel better and healthier in their work. In order to prevent his employees from burning out, he agreed with our stakeholder Forest Pedagogy NGO to provide forest bath services in a beautiful forest environment.The main stakeholders involved: Forest Pedagogy NGO The main beneficiaries: employees -nurses from the regional hospital AGEL in Kežmarok.

Resources needed

• Financial resources: VSE foundation grant, own financial resources hospital
• Human resources: certified forest bath service provider
• Specific resources for the activities: natural localities/venues.

Evidence of success

•Positive feedback from nurses (40 nurses)
•Feedback evaluation by POMS method (Profile of Mood States) – the questionnaire covered 8 areas of feelings that were recorded before and after the forest bath - in each of these areas the nurses noted a smaller or larger improvement
•Example and inspiration for others
•Activities provided in regional protected area
•Potential collaboration with National Park Administration that is interested in training an employee with forest bath certification

Potential for learning or transfer

The Covid pandemic affected almost the whole world and almost all areas of life, many people had to deal with isolation, learn to work remotely from home, everything moved to the online world and the social isolation of children and adults deepened. On the other hand, some professions experienced the exact opposite with direct contact with those affected by the pandemic (the so-called first line). All of these population groups were affected in some way and it had an impact on their physical and mental healthl. The cooperation model that we present in our good practice is easy to use and replicable in any other country. The target group can be not only mdical staff but also school teachers, managers in companies or employees in the state administration. The most important thing is that this service is offered by a certified and trained worker, and no less important is the environment in which the service will be performed, in our case it is protected forest area.