When is this day? August 12
What is this day? Healthcare professionals are often the last people to know that they need a break. Working in the healthcare field can easily result in burnout, as it’s a demanding job that requires large amounts of emotional, mental and physical energy. Every shift and every scenario is different. Many are life-or-death situations. Decisions that could make or break a patient’s recovery rest in the hands of clinical staff. That’s why proper clinical communications such as hospital codes are so important. Hospital staff have the ability to call codes on patients, but when they call a Code Lavender, it means they need time to step away and decompress before continuing on with their job. National Code Lavender Day exists to bring awareness to this code, and continue the spread into more healthcare organizations.
This code was pioneered by Cleveland Clinic in an effort to prevent nurses from experiencing long-term mental/emotional trauma as a result of compassion fatigue, alarm fatigue and every other form of fatigue that comes from being in a stressful healthcare environment.
How should this day be celebrated or observed? If you or someone you know works in healthcare, take time to research Code Lavender and what it would take to implement in your organization.