Mental and emotional health is affected by the work environment. The literature has supported that occupations in healthcare are some of the most stressful occupations worldwide. Healthcare employees are at increased risk for compassion fatigue and negative mental health effects due to workplace setting stressors. Occupational stressors include twelve-hour work shifts, alternatinv day and night shifts, physically strenuous activities, and deeply relating to ill and dying patients and their families. Professional quality of life and mental health instability can lead to burnout. Burnout is an independent predictor of medical errors. Mean emotional exhaustion levels of hospital staff have been correlated to the number of hospital malpractice suits. Mean burnout levels among nurses in hospital settings are an independent predictor of healthcare-associated infections. Burnout can lead to staff turnover. Turnover rates directly impact healthcare costs and negatively impact the financial standings of healthcare organizations. By addressing compassion fatigue and hospital staff’s mental health prior to burnout and turnover, healthcare organizations have the opportunity to avoid irreversible damage. The literature clarifies that the mental health of healthcare staff is not adequately acknowledged and supported. In Oregon, COVID-19 has radically exacerbated healthcare staff’s shaky foundation with prior mental and emotional health instability and compassion fatigue symptoms. Critical care staff is especialy impacted during these times as they experience the most extreme illnesses, losses of inpatients, community members, and fellow teammates. Stressors include contracting the virus through their work, passing the virus to family members, increasing exposure to death, and constant workflow changes. The Change Theory by Kurt Lewin laid the foundation for organizational change. The “Model for Change to Evidence-Based Practice” framework by Rosswurm and Larrabee was used to provide direction for the project through a systematic approach towards change. The methods utilized to prove project success included the objective of instituting a crisis intervention tool, Code Lavender, for healthcare staff on a pilot unit in a hospital setting. Outcomes and evaluation of the intervention were assessed by self-report via the professional quality of life survey and pre- and post 30 days intervention of the Code Lavender intervention. Success was measured in the increased professional quality of life scores. According to the literature, healthcare staff is at increased risk for mental, emotional, and spiritual crises. Utilizing Code Lavender, addressed and supported employees’ mental status, thus potentially leading to decreased turnover and burnout and increased quality of care provided to patients. It increased self-reported professional quality of life. All project outcomes were met, and the project was deemed successful. The result was significant at p<.05. The results indicated that Code Lavender had been proven as a holistic intervention to benefit healthcare staff’s mental well-being.
