Nurse-led plant initiative improving staff wellbeing

Despite working at the height of the winter crisis in the NHS, and with strike action looming around the corner, staff members in the queue were smiling.

Nurses and their colleagues from other professions were waiting patiently to be given a potted plant, which they were eager to take back to their non-clinical spaces to look after.

Throughout the week, staff at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust continued to be gifted plants, all thanks to nurse Nina Henton-Waller’s wellbeing scheme – the Green Plant Project.

Ms Henton-Waller, a sister on the acute medicine unit at Torbay Hospital, told Nursing Times that it was “an honour” to hand plants out to her colleagues.

“It was such a privilege to stand there and give plants to people, because they were just so, so happy,” she said.

“Every time I look around I can see green somewhere and it’s been a real proud moment for me”

Nina Henton-Waller

Ms Henton-Waller came up with the idea for the Green Plant Project during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, after she began to collect plants with her wife.

After realising the joy that looking after plants at home had brought the pair during the pandemic, Ms Henton-Waller had “a lightbulb moment” when she realised the positive impact greener spaces could have on NHS staff at work.

Initially, Ms Henton-Waller arranged for some large plants to be placed in the main reception area at Torbay Hospital. As a result, staff began to tell her “how much they enjoyed looking at the plants” when they were on shift.

This prompted Ms Henton-Waller to explore how to expand green spaces at the site, and with the help of the trust’s sustainability lead, she secured a grant from NHS Charities Together to fund the Green Plant Project.

Communications were rolled out at the trust to see how many staff members wanted to receive a free plant to look after while at work.

Ms Henton-Waller said she was “quite amazed” at the level of engagement and, after receiving more than 1,400 requests for plants, she became determined to source enough for every volunteer.

After striking a deal with a company based abroad, 1,500 plants were brought to the UK and stored in an outbuilding belonging to the trust.

Then, during a week of annual leave, Ms Henton-Waller and her small team of helpers brought all the plants to Torbay Hospital and the Green Plant Project was launched.

She said: “We set up a store in our main reception, and then we had to wait for 1,400 people to come and collect the plants.

"And there were just queues of people coming in to collect them, it was something quite surreal.”

Staff were given a choice of plant and pot, and were encouraged to take them back to non-clinical spaces, such as receptions and offices.

Since then, nurses have been among those who have been watering and caring for the plants while they are at work.

Nurses collecting their plants

“The majority of the plants have been really, really looked after by people and it’s made a big difference to their work environment and staff wellbeing,” said Ms Henton-Waller.

Not only has the project appeared to boost staff morale, but it has also made sites at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust much greener.

“You put a plant in a place like a hospital and it really stands out. So every time I look around I can see green somewhere and it’s been a real proud moment for me,” Ms Henton-Waller added.

Samantha Seymour, a senior sister at the trust, told Nursing Times that the plants had “really brightened up” her unit.

“We’ve had some feedback from staff and patients coming in about how it’s really nice having the plants on the reception, and how it brings colour to our department,” she said.

Ms Seymour added that the trust had separately been running classes each week to promote staff wellbeing, and some sessions had included group flower potting.

She said: “It’s nice because sometimes staff can’t get outside when they are working, so it’s like bringing the outdoors indoors.”

Meanwhile, Chantal Baker, nursing and midwifery excellence lead nurse at the trust, told Nursing Times that efforts to support staff wellbeing were “more important now than it’s ever been”.

She said: “I think wellbeing has been really challenged through the pandemic, and people are more conscious of it.

"I also think people are talking about it and also thinking about the proactive things they can do. Having [the Green Plant Project] is amazing.”

Ms Baker noted that sometimes organisations could “make assumptions” about what staff needed, and that actions to support nurse wellbeing could be “half-baked”.

“It’s no-one’s fault [and] no one’s intention,” she said.

“We try really hard to do things for staff and it can fall flat because suddenly money runs out or we haven’t got the resources to steer a nice project through from start to finish.

"So Nina has just done amazingly well because things like this are just so difficult, but she believed in it."

Ms Baker’s role involves supporting the trust to achieve the Pathway to Excellence accreditation, which aims to create a positive working environment for nursing staff.

The chief nursing officer for England Dame Ruth May announced in 2019 that 14 trusts across the country would be enrolled on the programme, which requires organisations to meet six standards that are conducive to excellent nurse working conditions.

As part of this, trusts must demonstrate how they involve nurses in decision making and how they have leaders who advocate for the profession.

Ms Baker said: “Nina was an absolutely golden example of where we’ve been able to involve our direct care nurses and they’ve taken the lead on a project that is impacting the entire organisation.”

It was not just staff at Torbay Hospital who were recipients of the plants, staff working across all the community sites at the trust were also included in the project.

Ms Baker noted that sometimes perks from organisations could be “very much directed at those who are delivering care on the ward”, meaning some office-based or community nurses were “being forgotten”.

“For those nurses to be on the receiving end of this project, and to have 200 plants in their massive open-plan office, is a really nice thing. It’s just another way of making people feel valued,” she said.

Chantal Baker

The trust’s sustainability and site services manager, Joanne Brimblecombe, was a key staff member who helped make the Green Plant Project a reality.

Ms Brimblecombe told Nursing Times that together she and Ms Henton-Waller became “very passionate about the environment and staff wellbeing”.

She said: “It was of huge importance to us to think about what we could do to improve staff health and wellbeing.

"We thought about what we could do to make their workplaces feel more comfortable and what would make them smile.”

When the project was launched, Ms Brimblecombe said the mood at the trust had changed and she had “never seen so many smiles on staff faces”.

“People were coming to us throughout the week and they were just so thrilled to be able to have a plant,” she said.

“To see those staff smiling was so lovely because so many people are very low at the moment for many reasons. It was emotional and I’m so glad we did it because it’s something we had never done before,” Ms Brimblecombe added.

The chief executive of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, Liz Davenport, echoed these feelings and told Nursing Times that the Green Plant Project had been “an important part of [the trust’s] recovery” after Covid-19.

In addition, the project had brought together staff from all parts of the trust, and had given people “a reason for optimism and positivity in the workplace”, she said.

Liz Davenport

Ms Davenport explained that, when staff felt happy, valued and supported by their workplace, “this plays out in the quality of interaction with patients and the outcome and experience they have”.

“You must support your staff and enable them to have joy in work for them to deliver their best for patients and I think this green project is a small but really important and tangible part of delivering that for our staff and the organisation,” she said.

Ms Davenport added that Ms Henton-Waller had “a real energy” to develop the Green Plant Project further.

“I would bet that Nina has another plan up her sleeve that we will see emerge in due course,” she said.

Due to the success of the Green Plant Project, NHS Charities Together has agreed to give money to the trust so it can run it for a second time.

Additionally, neighbouring trusts have expressed interest in the project, and Ms Henton-Waller said she had been communicating with them about how they may set up similar projects within their own organisations.

Meanwhile, Ms Henton-Waller added that she had been looking at other ways to bring more greenery to the trust and support both staff and patient wellbeing in the future.

She said: “We’re planning on doing lots of wonderful things with green spaces, this project was just the start.”