Interview by Kristin Antonino
“I distinctly remember one morning thinking, someone should be designing these spaces who knows what it's like to work in them.”
Teri Bennett, Professional Healthcare Interior Designer recounts her
career path from nurse to Healthcare Design in this recent interview.
Kristin Antonino
Can you tell us how you got started in designing for Health Care Environments?
Terry Bennett
When you are having to make that decision about “what do I what I do with my life?” I always knew that I was torn between a service career and creative career. The practical me went to nursing school first, so that I would always be able to have a paycheck. I'm very risk averse, and frankly, I didn't really have a vision at the age of 16 about what an artistic career could be, so, I went to nursing school.
It helped that I got a scholarship, worked for several years as a registered nurse and during part of that time, I was the nurse manager of a coronary care unit when they were doing a renovation. I got to meet weekly with the architects who were doing the design for our new coronary care unit, and I started making sketches for them. Well, the one week, they came back with my sketches in the construction drawings, and I went, wait a minute, that's what I should be doing! So, I went back to school for interior design at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Kristin Antonino
Can you describe a defining moment in your life that led you to design for Health Care Environments?
Terry Bennett
For me, you know, every now, and then, in life, you get these clear moments that you remember but most of our lives sort of fly by, and we forget the details. What did I have for lunch? I don't remember that. But I distinctly, remember one morning thinking, someone should be designing these spaces who knows what it's like to work in them, because, invariably, things weren't where I needed them to be. As a nurse, the materials I needed were not available. I even had a manufacturer, a monitor salesperson, once say to us that the monitors he wanted to sell us, were “nurse proof,” and the young 20 something me, didn't really know how to respond to that. I finally realized what bothered me about that statement was, if something is getting in the way of a nurse taking care of their patient, that something will be modified or tossed because the priority is the patient. So, I felt like my job was to try to remove the barriers between the nurse and good patient care.
Kristin Antonino
How long were you a nurse?
Teri Bennett
12 years.
Kristin Antonino
So, 12 years later, you decided to just switch gears?
Teri Bennett
Yes, it’s the sort of thing you have the energy for in your twenties, early thirties and it worked out really well. Eventually, I applied and joined a business designer organization, the Institute of Business Designers, which became part of IIDA.
My first design career was in hospitality. It was in the eighties, and hospitality was big at that time. I liked the fact that it was not healthcare first because I knew once I got tracked into health care, you would need a scalpel to get me out. So, my first experience was still large-scale, serving the public, doing public spaces, restaurants, things like that, it was good experience, because a health care designer really does everything. We are doing offices, we're doing dining spaces, waiting areas.
In 1991 I began doing healthcare design, eventually becoming the senior interior designer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in their Facilities Engineering/Architecture and Planning department. It was my dream job.
Kristin Antonino
How long were you designing and planning for Johns Hopkins Hospital?
Teri Bennett
Starting in 1993 to 2020 when I retired. I feel like my task now is to help those (certified health care interior designers) coming along to do the right thing and provide them with the right information. My work now is with AAHID (American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers), which I'm currently the president and the durable coated fabrics task group.
Kristin Antonino
When did you make that switch into designing for health care environments? Was there a pivotal point?
Teri Bennett
So, in the late eighties, the economy tanked a little bit, and the company I was working for was 99% doing hospitality work, and there was no hospitality work, it just dried right up. So, I went to work for another company, and that company was doing consulting work at University of Maryland Hospital, and other hospitals in the Baltimore region. So, I got a chance to do healthcare work and that ultimately was where I wanted to be. At that time, my predecessor at Hopkins was firmly entrenched in that position and I knew there was not a place for me at Hopkins at that time. Well, I found out that person was leaving and since I was also doing side work at Hopkins as a registered nurse during that time, I walked over to the facilities office with my resume and said, “here, I'd like to be your interior designer.” It was pretty much a cold call, and I just left my resume there. The opening did not happen for another year, but then I got a call asking me to come in for an interview. Luckily, someone had held on to my resume!
Kristin Antonino
Do you have a favorite project you worked on while designing for Johns Hopkins Hospital?
Teri Bennett
The Zayed Bloomberg building, it was two towers: the Zayed Cardiovascular & Critical Care tower and the Bloomberg Children's Center tower to replace our children's hospital, maternal child units, and upgrade all of our intensive care units and operating suites. That project was kind of the pinnacle because I got to work with our healthcare architectural consulting firm, Perkins and Will, on a 1.6 billion square feet, 1.1 billion-dollar project. It certainly was one of my favorites. I was part of a giant team clearly, and I was glad to be a part of that. I met a lot of wonderful people. Everything I did enabled me to learn more and to be better. So that's part of what I am hoping to share during my experience with AAHID with other certified healthcare interior designers.
Kristin Antonino
As a designer, when you are working on spaces in the health care arena, do you enlist nurses, doctors, etc. to help? What does that look like?
Teri Bennett
When we are doing a project the clinical team involved is so important. We want them to be sure that it is going to work for them.
One of the stories that comes to mind, we were doing a renovation of our emergency department, completely new flooring, finishes and everything. We had a consultant design team, of course, because I was just one person. So, we would bring in some of the big firms to help us to do the design development package for the project. So, they were doing their presentation to the nurses and clinical staff, and one of the members of the clinical staff asked us, “well, how do you clean it?” I could have kissed her. That is exactly the question they should ask. Because, she was saying, “if I cannot clean it, there's no point. Do not give it to me if I cannot clean it.” And I felt like my work there was done. We want to empower our clinical staff to know how important their input is, and we cannot be designing and building these spaces that can't be maintained. This gets forgotten when you have these beautiful glitzy renderings and presentation, but if you cannot keep it clean, what's the point?
Kristin Antonino
Would you say that designing for healthcare facilities has come a long way since when you started?
Teri Bennett
So, the good news is, increasingly, the architecture and planning people realize that not only do you have to consult with the clinical people for the renovation you're doing, but you really need to have someone in healthcare with you, on the design team, to help you put your best foot forward. That has been a major change clearly, since I first started. There are Masters programs now for clinical people who want to be consultants for healthcare design, which, clearly didn't exist 20 years ago.
Kristin Antonino
What is one of the largest hurdles you consistently run into when designing for healthcare facilities?
Teri Bennett
So, the short answer is collaborations. There is no simple, just put a chair in the corner. It all has to be thought out about the workflow in the area, creating zones for the staff and for the patient, for the family.
Kristin Antonino
What is some advice you would give to somebody who is looking to get into the field of healthcare design?
Teri Bennett
Most folks who are involved in healthcare design, it is a passion of theirs. They truly feel a calling for it because, like you said, it is not the “pretty” one. It is fairly recession proof; we are always building new things.
Mentoring is important. One of the organizations that has kind of allied with us is called Women In Healthcare, and it's not just interior design, it’s also clinical, it’s project managers. I, at one point, was involved in their mentoring program and I was able to help mentor people who wanted to become healthcare interior designers. So, again, it's about collaborations and finding other people to help you. You do not have to have all the answers. Get involved, and network and find the folks who do have the answers. Obviously, AAHID but we are a credentialing organization, so if you are just interested in health care, we're going to want you to sit for the exam. And if you are looking for that first job, go to some of the firms that do health care work and let them know you're interested and lots of times the bigger firms especially, will have entry level positions where you're a junior designer with a senior who can help show you the ropes.
