Impact on Non‑Clinical Waiting‑Room Staff through a Facilitator‑Orienter Program: Improvements in Empathy, Performance and Workplace Climate in Emergency Care

Background: In waiting areas of high-complexity emergency departments, interactions between users and non-clinical staff (information desks, admissions, security, coordination, triage) strongly determine patient experience, perceived quality and flow of care. After a six-month volunteer intervention that deployed nursing students as facilitators-orienters to support patients and families, a systematic evaluation was undertaken to determine the intervention’s impact on first-line non-clinical personnel, their daily performance and workplace climate.

 

Approach: We conducted a mixed-methods action-research study with descriptive and evaluative aims, performed immediately after the six-month student volunteer program in a Chilean high-complexity emergency hospital waiting area. Population: first-line staff who had interacted with at least four students (information and complaints office, admissions, security, triage nursing, coordination). Quantitative component: Likert 1–7 surveys assessing perceived support for job tasks, perceived change in quality of service and perceived student learning.

 

Qualitative component: 22 semi-structured interviews, purposive sampling to ensure representation across shifts and roles, verbatim transcription and thematic coding with systematic analysis. Ethical procedures, informed consent and data protection followed institutional regulations. The design combined evaluative measurement with formative feedback to inform iterative improvement.

 

Results: Twenty-two staff participated, representing all shifts (OIRS n=10; coordination n=4; security n=4; admissions n=2; triage nursing n=4). Mean rating for student presence as functional support was 6.4/7. One hundred percent reported a significant improvement in service quality; 96% considered the experience relevant to student professional training. Thematic analysis produced seven core categories: (1) knowledge and attitudes toward the project; (2) interaction dynamics and integration between students and staff; (3) perceived impact on service quality; (4) effects on non-clinical personnel (well‑being and workload); (5) learnings and competencies developed by students; (6) emergent interprofessional collaboration; (7) sustainability and recommendations. Quantitative and narrative data consistently identified concrete improvements in active listening, empathic responses, conflict management, effective communication and stress tolerance.

Participants reported increased institutional recognition of administrative roles and reduced perceived workload during peak demand. Documented learning transfer included students’ internalization of administrative pressures and adoption of communication and behavioral strategies that de-escalated user tension and facilitated inter-area coordination, producing a calmer atmosphere and smoother operational flow.

 

Implications: and conclusions The facilitators-orienters model generated multidimensional positive effects: it humanized the waiting-area experience, strengthened students’ relational competencies and delivered direct benefits to the performance and well‑being of non-clinical staff. Findings align with Pillar 4 (Workforce capacity, skills and inclusion), demonstrating that situated learning and co-production between students and administrative staff are effective strategies to build a more inclusive, skilled and motivated workforce.

 

For scalability and more rigorous evaluation we recommend: (a) implementing pre–post measures with validated instruments for empathy and workplace climate (e.g., Jefferson Scale, CARE); (b) standardizing induction, supervision and formative assessment protocols for students and host staff; (c) integrating continuous quantitative follow-up on service and well‑being indicators; (d) developing a sustainability plan to replicate the model across services and contexts. These steps will facilitate translation of the experience into a replicable program to strengthen the non-clinical workforce within person‑centred integrated care models.