Jennifer Scott, nurse manager at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Hurst-Euless-Bedford, loved the new Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation space when the department moved from the fitness center to the hospital’s basement.
“It has increased access, since we need a supervising physician and access to emergency services. And instead of the patient going through the hospital, we have a back door, so they can come straight in from the parking lot,” said Scott, B.S.N., R.N. “That’s been especially helpful during COVID-19.”
But there was one problem.
“Our entrance is at the back of the hospital, so it didn’t have much curb appeal,” she said.
New patients sometimes had trouble spotting the door across the physician parking lot, so Scott wanted to help it stand out with some artwork. Scott mentioned the idea to Katherine Wardlaw, M.B.A., M.S.N., R.N., NEA-BC.
Wardlaw, manager of endoscopy and special procedures, then spoke with her daughter, Julianna. The teenage artist couldn’t wait to help, so she and Scott met to go over ideas.
“I said I just wanted something with a heart, and maybe a lung,” Scott said. “She came up with the whole design of a heart with a Band-Aid, and created vines coming out of it, so people could add flowers. She did the flowers at the top that people can’t reach and left the chalk so other people could contribute.”
Paint wasn’t allowed, so the whole piece was done with ordinary sidewalk chalk.
“It was my first time using chalk on a large scale,” said Julianna, who sold her first artwork at age 12. “I had a friend help me. I did all the outlines and told her what color to use to fill it in. She was a really big help. We figured out that if you dip the chalk in water, it covers the surface area better.”
The whole wall took only two hours to complete.
“We did it in an afternoon,” she said. “There was pizza, so it went quick.”
The response has been overwhelmingly positive, Scott said.
“People have really responded to it,” she said. “We started with 30 flowers and now there are more than 70. It gives people something to look at and gets people involved. I’ve heard that even nurses and doctors have added flowers. Some patients even like to take their picture in front of it.”
The wall helps improve the patient experience in important ways, said Fraser Hay, FACHE, hospital president.
“Jennifer identified a need to not only beautify the entrance but also make it easier for patients to find,” Hay said. “And Julianna’s idea to add the vines and make it interactive helps people get excited about their rehab experience.”
Scott hopes Julianna will return to add more vines, but the artist has other ideas.
“I understand that Jennifer wants it to stay, but I think something new would be cool,” Julianna said. “I made up a cartoon character that’s a heart running on a treadmill, so I could make a whole gym like that. I’m not sure yet how I’d make that interactive, though.”
