Use of aromatherapy to promote a therapeutic nurse environment

BackgroundWorkplace stress can affect nurse satisfaction. Aroma therapy as a therapeutic use of essential oil can be beneficial in reducing stress.PurposeAssess perceived stress pre-post introduction of Essential Oil Lavender among registered nurses, charge nurses, and patient care technicians in a trauma intensive care unit, surgical specialty care unit and an orthopedic trauma unit.MethodsPre-post intervention with a quasi-experimental design. After a pre-survey, Essential Oil Lavender was diffused 24 h per day over 30 days in a designated nursing area that all nurses were not required to enter on each unit.ResultsDependent sample t-test for “how often do nurses feel stressed a work in a typical week” revealed pre-survey mean 2.97 (SD = 0.99) which was significantly higher than post-survey mean 2.70 (SD = 0.92) with significance, t(69) = 2.36, p = 0.021, suggesting a difference in how often staff felt stressed at work in a typical week, trending down from “feeling stressed half of time” to “once in a while”. There were no statistically significant differences in pre-post survey scores for TICU, TOU, or SSC as separate units.RelevanceUse of essential oils to decrease work-related stress among nursing staff may improve retention, workplace environment, and increase nurse satisfaction.