This first article relates the feedback from staff members regarding the use of the booth and its effects on stress at work.

Introduction:

The Saint Vincent de Paul hospital is part of the Institut Catholique de Lille hospital group. It is located in the heart of the city of Lille, providing care to hospital users from Lille, but also from neighbouring areas. This university hospital, attached to the Lille Free Faculty of Medicine, has a huge range of technical facilities including surgery departments, medicine departments, paediatric departments, psychiatric departments and a general emergency department. As a result of its location and reputation, there is a significant amount of care activity, supported by the hospital staff. As with all hospitals of this scale, this activity generates a significant amount of occupational stress.

GSI International has made available to the hospital a SCENT’HEALTH olfactory booth, the function of which is to diffuse synergies of essential oils in a relaxing environment. This booth, which is located centrally within the general hospital, is available to patients and to the medical staff. This first article relates the feedback from staff members regarding the use of the booth and its effects on stress at work.

Occupational stress in a hospital setting

In general terms, epidemiologists, doctors, ergonomists, economists and sociologists have reached the same conclusions in their studies, in spite of using different assessment methods. Indeed, the overall trend of a gradual improvement in working conditions that characterised the 20th century saw a reversal starting at around the beginning of the 1990s. This trend reversal is an underlying cause of the current occupational stress being experienced, manifesting as musculoskeletal disorders and/or occupational exhaustion.

In a hospital setting, the high-stress work conditions are caused mainly by an excessive workload, difficult working hours, and daily contact with suffering and death. This has harmful consequences for medical staff, the most visible manifestations of which are absenteeism and career changes by many nurses towards careers outside of a hospital setting, which is disruptive to the functioning of hospitals and, via a vicious circle, increases the occupational stress.

Today, there is a clear awareness of this occupational stress at the Saint Vincent de Paul hospital on the part of the management and from an occupational medicine standpoint, and there is a desire to provide solutions to remedy this problem. Among the approaches explored, a particular approach was chosen, involving aromatherapy offered during the day to medical staff, with a view to helping them de-stress.

From aromatherapy to olfactology

The term "aromatherapy" was invented in 1928 by René-Maurice GATTEFOSSE, a chemical engineer from Lyon. Aromatherapy uses extracts from certain plants. It is also referred to as "the medicine of perfumes".

Everyday smells play a vital role in humans. The sense of smell “sends" both positive and negative information that modifies our moods and influences the way we function. Plant essences act upon this mechanism, and these essences have a profound impact on our health and well-being. By stimulating the nervous system, the essential oil fragrances cause an auto-regulation effect; more precisely, olfactology prepares the body to combat disease by stimulating the self-healing reflex. It is used in order to prevent disease.

Essential oils, composed of several hundred very powerful volatile aromatic molecules, are the basis of this medicine. They are obtained by water vapour distillation, extraction or pressurisation of the fragrant matter taken from the plants.

Despite their name, essential oils do not contain fatty matter, such as vegetable oil. These are natural secretions contained in plant particles in the stem, the bark or any other part of the plant. Certain essential oils activate and stimulate sensory, olfactory and kinaesthetic memories. They can help to avoid the excessive use of medicines by encouraging relaxation in those using them.

Summary:

Four olfactory synergies designed for olfactology were created for the use of the hospital staff and hospital users. Here is the description given by the creator for the four synergies, providing information to the user of the booth so that they can make their choice.

- Synergy 1 stimulates and boosts by rebalancing the nervous system. It reinvigorates and helps one to excel.
- Synergy 2 is comparable to pure air. It transmits vital force and energy, giving a breath of oxygen. It provides clarity when one is experiencing overwork or deep tiredness.
- Synergy 3 calms one’s fears, apprehension and anxiety. It helps one to refocus on what is essential and provides serenity.
- Synergy 4 aims to provide a breath of peace, dissipating stress and bringing about the right conditions for sleep. The benzoin included in this formula produces an effect similar to receiving a big cuddle.

With this objective in mind, a booth equipped with an essential oil diffuser was installed. This booth, equipped with a relaxing armchair, creates an enjoyable and cocooning space, the aim of which is to create an enjoyable environment for the sessions. The session is accompanied by a succession of changing colour ‘ambiances’, still with the same aim of making this moment different, peaceful and revitalising. The diffusion system developed by SCENT’HEALTH allows the biochemical qualities of each of the essential oils used to be perfectly released, for the optimum achievement of the effect being sought.

The staff were invited, during their lunchtime or evening break, to come and undertake a 20 minute session, choosing one of the four synergies on offer. After the session, they were instructed to provide brief written feedback regarding their experience. To this end, a follow-up table for the booth sessions was made available to them, on which each staff member indicated the essential oil synergy they used and their level of satisfaction from 0 to 10 (0: unsatisfied, 10: very satisfied) with regard to the overall quality of the care and with regard to the synergy used. The users could also leave a comment regarding their experiences and reflections.

In this first study, 56 members of staff undertook an olfactology session in the Scent’Health booth.

The raw quantitative results of the study show that:
- The mean score for the overall quality of the care was 8.02 out of 10.

With respect to the different synergies, a more detailed analysis relating to each of the four synergies gives the following results:
- The first synergy scored 7.5 out of 10 for satisfaction. This synergy was chosen by 8 staff members.
- The second synergy scored 8.5 out of 10 and was chosen by 22 staff members.
- The third synergy scored 7.45 out of 10 and was chosen by 11 staff members.
- The fourth synergy scored 7.8 out of 10 and was chosen by 10 staff members.

The qualitative results:
The feedback reported by the staff members who experienced the olfactology in the booth included the following comments: good relaxation, muscle relaxation, relaxing smells, pleasant time, relaxing, revitalising, letting go.

Discussion

Because of the ever faster pace and ever increasing workload in hospitals, the phenomenon of occupational stress has been clearly identified in hospital facilities. However, few solutions have been provided for these staff members who, in addition, are confronted on a daily basis with patient suffering and with death. In this stressful occupational environment, the experiment involving the SCENT’HEALTH space has shown the highly beneficial effects of the synergies in terms of staff relaxation. The synergy that was most popular and that achieved the highest score was synergy No.2. (Synergy 2 is comparable to pure air. It transmits vital force and energy, giving a breath of oxygen. It provides clarity when one is experiencing overwork or deep tiredness). It is without doubt the one that responds best to the expectations of staff members, both in terms of its name and its effects. The other synergies achieved a lower level of approval. However, the level of satisfaction achieved by these other synergies remained very high. In this stressful occupational environment, the experiment involving the SCENT’HEALTH space has shown the highly beneficial effects of the synergies in terms of staff relaxation. Indeed, this was a key word that was repeated in a number of reports, more specifically the ‘relaxing’ role of the SCENT’HEALTH sessions.

Conclusion

The use of the SCENT’HEALTH olfactory booth in a hospital setting is a valuable tool that provides a suitable response to the occupational stress experienced by hospital staff. The factors that should be taken into account include the choice of synergy, but also the importance of allowing oneself a break in a pleasant environment during the course of a work day. The booth offers the possibility of temporarily relieving the tiredness associated with an excessive workload and releasing the tensions that have accumulated from being in the presence of patients who are suffering.