Healthcare workers are facing mounting pressure from burnout, staffing shortages, and turnover, raising urgent questions about how the workplace itself can better support those on the front lines. Gensler’s inaugural Healthcare Workplace Survey, conducted in fall 2025 with 1,204 physicians, nurses, medical assistants, and technicians in the U.S. and Canada, set out to examine the relationship between the physical environment and the healthcare worker experience.
The research looks beyond traditional factors such as compensation and staffing to explore how patient-care spaces, staff amenities, access to nature, and everyday workplace effectiveness may influence well-being and retention. The findings point to a broader opportunity for healthcare design to create environments that support caregivers while also advancing patient care.
Bonny Slater (Image credit: Courtesy of Gensler)
Here, Bonny Slater, co-global healthcare practice leader and design director at Gensler (Washington, D.C.), discusses what the research revealed and how its findings could shape how project teams approach the design of tomorrow’s healthcare workplaces.
Healthcare Design: What inspired the firm to study the healthcare workplace specifically, and what questions were you hoping the research would answer?
Bonny Slater: The survey was launched in response to the ongoing healthcare workforce crisis after COVID-19, as burnout, staffing shortages, and turnover continue to affect providers, hospitals, and patients. Specifically, recent media headlines reported alarming levels of burnout and intent to leave hospital work, raising an important question: What role does the physical environment play?
Our clients were increasingly asking whether design can help address burnout, retention, and workforce strain, and which investments deliver the strongest return. We wanted evidence, not assumptions.
Specifically, we wanted to understand:
- Is there evidence linking hospital design to burnout and well-being?
- Which spaces have the greatest impact on staff experience?
- Which amenities matter most?
- What amenities are most used versus most valued?
- Can design help improve retention and reduce intent to leave?
HCD: Staff satisfaction has been on the healthcare industry’s radar for some time. What does the research reveal about why it remains such a difficult issue to address—and what role can the physical environment play?
Slater: The research revealed that staff well-being is influenced by much more than compensation, staffing levels, or schedules. The physical environment also plays an important role, but it has historically received less attention and measurement.
One challenge is that many of the spaces strongly associated with staff well-being have to compete with revenue-generating spaces. Outdoor spaces, respite areas, and other wellness-focused amenities are frequently reduced or eliminated during planning and budgeting.
The survey also found that simply providing amenities is not enough. Staff frequently reported not having time to use them, and amenities located far from the point of care may be technically available but practically inaccessible during a busy shift.
Access to nature presents another challenge. Views of nature and outdoor spaces were among the strongest predictors of workplace effectiveness and well-being, yet many healthcare workers spend long hours in deep floor plates, windowless environments, or hospitals where outdoor spaces are difficult to access.
What the research demonstrated is that environmental effectiveness matters. The opportunity for design is to reduce friction in everyday work, improve patient-care spaces, bring restorative experiences closer to clinical areas, and ensure staff-support spaces are convenient enough to be used during the realities of a healthcare shift.
HCD: What did the research reveal about how design can influence retention?
Slater: Providers who rated their hospital environment as effective consistently reported lower intent to leave. This relationship held across all three work modes we studied: caring for patients, working with coworkers, and working alone.
Stress was the most common reason people gave for planning to leave hospital work, suggesting that reducing environmental stressors in general can support retention. Spaces to grieve and spaces for staff socialization were associated with a lower likelihood of planning to leave. These amenities should be part of retention strategies, along with the cultural and operational support to enable and normalize their use.
The findings suggest that design should be viewed as part of a broader workforce retention strategy, not simply a facilities investment.
HCD: What finding surprised you most in the survey or challenged an assumption you had going into the research?
Slater: The biggest surprise was the importance of patient-care spaces in predicting staff experience and well-being. Providers who rated their patient-care spaces highly were far more likely to report a great overall work experience.
Traditionally, patient care spaces are discussed in terms of clinical efficiency, safety, and patient outcomes rather than overall staff experience. The findings suggest those priorities are deeply connected.
It challenged the assumption that designing for staff and designing for patients are separate goals. Improving patient-care spaces appears to support both.
HCD: What characteristics of patient-care spaces make the biggest difference for healthcare workers, and how might that change the way designers approach patient-care environments?
Slater: The characteristics most associated with effective patient-care spaces included (in order): privacy for patients and families, air quality, cleanliness, flexibility to rearrange furniture and equipment, and layout.
Patient-care spaces may be one of the most immediate opportunities to improve staff experience because they are already a priority for hospitals as revenue-generating spaces tied directly to care delivery. Because patient experience is top of mind, designers may face less resistance when advocating for improvements to these rooms.
However, over-standardization remains a challenge. Trying to make one space work for too many uses or specialties can result in rooms that do not work well for anyone. We should challenge this approach and design patient-care spaces that better support both clinical work and staff well-being.
There’s significant opportunity for future research to identify the specific design features in various space types that matter most. Based on the highest-rated characteristics, patient experience appears to directly influence staff experience.
HCD: Views of nature and access to the outdoors emerged as strong predictors of well-being, yet many healthcare workers report limited access to them. What are some realistic design strategies for bringing these restorative qualities into projects, particularly when space, budget, or site constraints are significant?
Slater: We have been discussing this topic recently and see a range of possibilities that address multiple needs at once.
For example, immersive experiences that combine technology and art could bring some of nature’s restorative qualities into windowless spaces. Fixed imagery cannot recreate nature, but sound, scent, movement, and time-aligned infrared light could create a more dynamic connection to the natural world and a meaningful moment of restoration during a demanding shift. This is not a substitute for real nature. It is an opportunity to extend restorative experiences where outdoor connections are difficult.
However, there are always significant space, budget, and site constraints. The goal of this research was to strengthen evidence around the impact and return on investment of allocating space, budget, and site assets for staff and ensuring their needs are part of project goals and success metrics from day one. It is too easy to see constraints as an excuse rather than an opportunity.
HCD: What’s one takeaway on designing for healthcare staff that you want readers to know?
Slater: When we invest in caregivers’ well-being, we also invest in patient outcomes, workforce resilience, and the future of healthcare.
Anne DiNardo is editor-in-chief of Healthcare Design magazine and can be reached at [email protected].
