Why Wellbeing Matters
About This Toolkit
How to Use This Toolkit
Who Is This Toolkit For
Getting Started
Health-Promoting Environments
The Okanagan Charter
PPC Safety
EDIA
5-Step Implementation Guide
Overview
Key Components
Putting into Practice
Cases
Roles
Resources
Overview
Key Components
Putting into Practice
Cases
Roles
Overview
Key Components
Putting into Practice
Cases
Roles
Overview
Key Components
Putting into Practice
Cases
Roles
Overview
Key Components
Putting into Practice
Cases
Roles
Create Sustainable, Supportive, and Inclusive Spaces
Create and sustain supportive, inclusive, and health-promoting environments by intentionally shaping the built, natural, social, cultural, academic, organizational, and virtual spaces that influence how people learn, work, teach, research, connect, and provide care.
Spaces: At-a-Glance
What is this strategic direction about?
Creating spaces that support wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability.
Why does it matter?
Spaces shape daily experience and can either reinforce or reduce barriers to wellbeing and equity.
What will I do here?
Learn how your institution can assess and enhance spaces to better support wellbeing and inclusion for all.
What you’ll find in this section
- Overview: Why Spaces Matter
- Key Components of Health-Promoting Spaces
- Putting Supportive Spaces into Practice
- Case Studies
- Explore Your Role in Health-Promoting Spaces
- Tools and Resources
Overview
Why Supportive Spaces Matter
Physical, social, and virtual spaces shape how people experience their environment, interact with one another, and engage in learning and work. These spaces can influence wellbeing, inclusion, and access to opportunity. When intentionally designed, they can foster connection, reduce barriers, and create conditions where all individuals and communities can thrive.
Health-promoting spaces are inclusive, accessible, adaptable, and sustainable. They reflect and respect diverse identities and needs, promote physical, psychological, and cultural safety, and support meaningful participation. This includes intentionally applying principles of universal design from the outset to create environments that proactively support accessibility, inclusion, and participation for all members of the community.
Creating and maintaining supportive spaces requires shared responsibility across the institution, with leadership accountable for establishing the culture, policies, resources, and systems necessary to support safer, more inclusive, and health-promoting environments. Through intentional design and ongoing evaluation of learning and working environments, faculties can act as living laboratories that advance wellbeing, sustainability, and belonging.
The Equity in Health Systems (EqHS) Lab can be a resource to learn more about creating compassionate and equitable work and learning spaces.
The Canadian Physicians with Disabilities has many resources regarding accessibility and universal design.
How Spaces Connect to Other Strategic Directions in the Okanagan Charter
Supportive spaces contribute to wellbeing, inclusion, learning, work, and care. The effectiveness of health-promoting spaces depends on policies, culture, services, and ongoing evaluation.
Policies influence space planning, accessibility standards, sustainability priorities, safety requirements, and resource allocation.
The experience of a space is shaped not only by design, but also by the behaviours, relationships, and norms that occur within it.
Supportive environments create opportunities for learning, reflection, mentorship, connection, restoration, and professional growth.
Physical and virtual spaces can influence awareness of, access to, and delivery of health and wellbeing services.
Regular assessment, feedback, and evaluation help institutions identify opportunities to improve spaces and respond to evolving community needs.
Key Components of Effective Health-Promoting Spaces
Health-promoting spaces are intentionally designed to support wellbeing, inclusion, accessibility, sustainability, safety, and belonging across academic, clinical, and virtual environments. These spaces extend beyond physical infrastructure to consider the social, cultural, and psychological conditions that shape how people learn, teach, work, connect, and provide care. While every institution will have different priorities, capacities, and contexts, several key components consistently contribute to safer, more inclusive, supportive environments.
Health-promoting spaces are accessible, adaptable, and intentionally designed to support diverse needs from the outset. Applying principles of universal design helps reduce barriers proactively rather than reactively. Accessibility includes physical, sensory, cognitive, technological, and communication considerations across in-person, hybrid, and virtual environments.
Possible examples:
- Accessible entrances, pathways, and transportation routes
- Adjustable furniture and ergonomic workstations
- Inclusive signage and clear wayfinding
- Assistive technologies, captioning, and accessible digital platforms
- Quiet, low-sensory, or neurodiversity-friendly spaces
- Flexible learning and meeting environments
Spaces should reflect and respect the diversity of the communities they serve. Inclusive environments foster belonging, cultural safety, equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility (EDIA), and meaningful participation across diverse identities, backgrounds, experiences, and roles. Institutions should consider how best to support the diverse needs of their communities while aligning with local context, policies, and legislative requirements.
Possible examples:
- All-gender washrooms
- Reflection or spiritual spaces
- Inclusive imagery, multilingual signage, and diverse representation
- Community-informed planning with learners, faculty, staff, patients, and equity-deserving groups
- Policies and practices that support inclusion and respectful engagement
Academic and clinical environments should support rest, recovery, nourishment, and overall wellbeing, particularly in high-demand learning and work settings. Health-promoting spaces recognize that wellbeing is influenced by both the physical environment and opportunities for connection, restoration, and balance.
Possible examples:
- Rest, decompression, or wellness spaces
- Access to natural light, green space, and outdoor environments
- Healthy food, hydration, and lactation supports
- Showers, lockers, and active transportation infrastructure
- Ergonomic design and air quality considerations
- Spaces that encourage social connection, reflection, and peer support
Supportive environments promote safety, trust, respect, accountability, and freedom from harm, discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and violence. Psychological safety enables individuals to participate, ask questions, share concerns, and seek support without fear of judgment or retaliation.
Possible examples:
- Trauma-informed and respectful workplace practices
- Safe reporting and response processes
- Well-lit pathways, emergency supports, and safe-walk programs
- De-escalation and conflict response resources
- Clear policies around respectful behaviour and accountability
Health-promoting spaces are shaped not only by physical environments but also by institutional culture, leadership practices, policies, and day-to-day interactions. Supportive organizational cultures reinforce collaboration, compassion, flexibility, mentorship, and wellbeing across learning and working environments.
Possible examples:
- Leadership commitment to wellbeing, inclusion, and accessibility
- Flexible and supportive learning or work practices
- Collaborative lounges, meeting, and mentorship spaces
- Team-based approaches that promote respect and belonging
- Policies that support work-life integration and psychological wellbeing
- Opportunities for reflection, feedback, and continuous learning
Health-promoting spaces support long-term environmental, organizational, and community wellbeing through sustainable, resilient, and flexible design. Sustainable environments are responsive to evolving community needs and help institutions adapt over time.
Possible examples:
- Energy-efficient infrastructure and sustainable operations
- Flexible multi-use and hybrid learning spaces
- Sustainable materials and waste reduction practices
- Climate-conscious campus and facility planning
- Technology that supports accessibility and adaptability
- Ongoing evaluation, maintenance, and continuous improvement
Putting Supportive Spaces into Practice
Creating sustainable, supportive, and inclusive spaces is an ongoing process that requires collaboration, planning, and continuous improvement. Institutions do not need to address every aspect of this work at once. While some changes may require significant time and investment, others can be implemented quickly and still have meaningful impact. Together, small and large-scale efforts contribute to healthier learning and working environments over time.
Creating supportive spaces requires shared responsibility across the institution, with leadership accountable for establishing the culture, policies, resources, and systems needed to support safe, inclusive, and health-promoting environments.
Clarify who will lead and coordinate this work and ensure they have a clear mandate, institutional support, and appropriate representation. Depending on the context, this may involve an existing committee, a new working group, or a cross-functional leadership structure.
Consider involving:
- Faculty and operational leadership
- Facilities and campus planning teams
- Occupational health and safety representatives or Joint Health and Safety Committees
- EDIA, accessibility, and wellbeing offices
- Learners, faculty, staff, and clinical partners
- Accessibility consultants and individuals with lived experience
- Researchers, educators, and community partners, as appropriate
Embedding supportive spaces into institutional planning, budgeting, strategic priorities, and decision-making processes helps ensure this work is sustained over time rather than approached as a one-time initiative.
Before implementing changes, it is important to understand how spaces are currently experienced by the people who use them. Gathering feedback and assessing existing environments can help identify strengths, barriers, gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
This may include:
- Accessibility and space audits
- Walkthroughs of academic, clinical, and virtual environments
- Surveys, focus groups, or listening sessions
- Reviewing incident reports or recurring concerns
- Assessing visibility and awareness of supports and inclusive spaces
- Evaluating organizational and cultural factors that shape experiences within spaces
When evaluating spaces, consider both physical design and the social, cultural, and psychological experience of the environment.
Questions to Consider:
- What spaces do people use regularly, and how are they experienced?
- What contributes to feelings of comfort, inclusion, safety, or belonging?
- Are there spaces that feel inaccessible, isolating, unsafe, or difficult to use?
- Do current spaces support diverse physical, sensory, cultural, spiritual, and learning needs while reflecting local context, institutional priorities, and community needs?
- Are there opportunities to improve accessibility, flexibility, rest, connection, or psychological safety?
Improving spaces may involve both short-term and long-term changes. Some improvements can be implemented quickly with minimal cost or disruption, while others require significant planning, funding, or infrastructure investment. Prioritizing opportunities can help institutions build momentum while planning strategically for larger initiatives over time.
Smaller-Scale Changes may include:
- Improving signage and wayfinding
- Repurposing underused rooms as quiet, reflection, or wellbeing spaces
- Adding plants, soft lighting, or noise-reduction features
- Introducing ergonomic or flexible furniture
- Expanding access to hydration stations or healthy food options
- Adding all-gender washroom signage to existing single-stall washrooms
- Increasing visibility of wellbeing, accessibility, and reporting resources
Larger-Scale Changes may include:
- Renovations to improve physical accessibility
- Creating dedicated lactation, cultural, or wellbeing spaces
- Upgrading ventilation, lighting, or elevator systems
- Redesigning learning or clinical environments
- Expanding green space or outdoor restorative areas
- Developing flexible multi-use community spaces
- Integrating sustainability and climate-conscious infrastructure improvements
Every institution will have different priorities, capacities, and constraints. Changes identified as simple in one setting may require greater coordination or investment in another.
Check out the “Prioritizing Space Needs” resource in the tools section
Health-promoting spaces are intentionally designed to support accessibility, inclusion, wellbeing, sustainability, and belonging. Applying principles of universal design from the outset can help create environments that proactively support diverse needs and reduce barriers to participation.
Implementation efforts should consider:
- Physical accessibility and mobility needs, and safety
- Sensory, cognitive, and neurodiversity considerations
- Psychological and cultural safety
- Rest, reflection, and restoration spaces
- Inclusive technology and hybrid learning needs
- Community connection, collaboration, and mentorship
- Organizational culture and team dynamics
- Sustainability and environmental wellbeing
Collaborating with those who use the spaces, including learners, staff, faculty, patients, and community members, can help ensure that solutions are practical, responsive, and meaningful.
Pilot projects and phased implementation approaches may also help test changes, gather feedback, and support continuous improvement over time.
Creating supportive spaces is not a one-time effort. Ongoing evaluation and communication are essential to understanding impact, identifying emerging needs, and sustaining progress over time.
Institutions should consider:
- Establishing clear processes for feedback and reporting concerns
- Communicating available supports, inclusive spaces, and accessibility features
- Monitoring how spaces are used and experienced
- Regularly reviewing policies, practices, and physical environments
- Evaluating organizational culture and wellbeing outcomes
- Embedding supportive space planning into broader institutional strategy and quality improvement efforts
Recognizing and celebrating progress can also help build engagement, reinforce institutional commitment, and encourage continued collaboration across the community.
Implementation Principle: Start Small, Build Strategically
Not every improvement requires major renovation or significant financial investment. Small, intentional changes can meaningfully improve wellbeing, accessibility, and inclusion while building momentum for larger institutional initiatives over time.
Health-promoting spaces are created through continuous learning, collaboration, and incremental progress.
Case Studies
The following cases are designed to encourage reflection, discussion, and action within medical schools and health professions education settings. Each case highlights how supportive and inclusive spaces intersect with other areas of institutional wellbeing, including organizational culture, policy development, equity, accessibility, and continuous improvement.
Case Study #1: “Inconsistent Expectations Around Hybrid Work”
Case Study #2: “Unsupportive Clinical Space”
Case Study #3: “Lack of Inclusive Facilities”
These examples are not intended to prescribe a single solution. Rather, they are designed to support dialogue, identify opportunities for change, and help institutions apply health-promoting principles within their own unique contexts.
Case Study #1
“Inconsistent Expectations Around Hybrid Work”
Administrative and research staff across a Faculty of Medicine experience inconsistent hybrid work expectations. Some departments allow flexible arrangements, while others require full-time on-site work for similar roles without clear rationale or guidance.
As a result, staff report confusion, frustration, and perceptions of inequity, particularly those managing health needs, caregiving responsibilities, accessibility needs, or long commutes. Over time, these inconsistencies begin to affect team trust, collaboration, morale, and retention.
The Faculty lacks a consistent, evidence-informed hybrid work approach that balances operational needs with wellbeing, accessibility, equity, sustainability, and organizational culture.
Health-promoting spaces include the virtual, social, and organizational environments that shape how people work and learn. Hybrid work practices influence accessibility, inclusion, wellbeing, psychological safety, and team culture. Transparent and equitable approaches can support healthier, more sustainable, and adaptable work environments.
Accessibility and Universal Design: Flexible work arrangements may reduce barriers related to accommodation, health needs, caregiving, or commuting challenges.
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety: Transparent and equitable practices help foster trust, fairness, and belonging across teams.
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration: Flexible work can support a healthier work-life balance, reduce stress, and improve wellbeing.
Physical and Psychological Safety: Clear expectations and psychologically safe communication support trust and accountability.
Supportive Organizational Cultures: Consistent, equitable leadership practices influence collaboration, morale, and organizational culture.
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments: Hybrid work models may support more sustainable space use and organizational adaptability.
Accessibility and Universal Design
- Are current hybrid work expectations flexible and accessible enough to support diverse needs, abilities, and responsibilities?
- Do employees have equitable access to the tools, technology, and supports needed to work effectively across environments?
- Are hybrid policies and processes easy to understand, navigate, and apply consistently across teams and roles?
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety:
- Are hybrid work decisions communicated and applied in ways that feel fair, transparent, and inclusive?
- Which groups or roles may experience unintended barriers, inequities, or exclusion under current practices?
- How are diverse perspectives and lived experiences considered when shaping workplace expectations?
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration:
- How do current hybrid work arrangements affect stress, workload, work-life integration, and overall wellbeing?
- Are there opportunities to improve flexibility, restoration, or balance without compromising operational needs?
Physical and Psychological Safety:
- Do staff feel comfortable discussing flexibility needs, concerns, or accommodations without fear of judgment or consequences?
- Are expectations and decision-making processes clear enough to reduce confusion, tension, or mistrust?
- Are staff provided with ergonomically safe and appropriate work environments, equipment, and supports for both on-site and remote work settings?
Supportive Organizational Cultures:
- How do current hybrid work practices influence collaboration, team culture, mentorship, and trust?
- Are leaders and supervisors supported in applying expectations consistently and compassionately?
- How are connection, communication, and shared team norms maintained across in-person and virtual environments?
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments:
- How might hybrid work practices contribute to more sustainable and adaptable use of institutional space and resources?
- Are current approaches responsive to evolving organizational, technological, and community needs?
Consider how hybrid work practices currently operate within your institution, department, or team:
- Are hybrid working and learning expectations clear, equitable, and consistently applied?
- Is flexibility balanced with operational needs?
- Which groups may experience unintended barriers or inequities?
- Do current hybrid approaches align with institutional values related to wellbeing, inclusion, accessibility, sustainability, and organizational culture?
- What opportunities exist to improve communication, accountability, or flexibility over time?
Engaging staff, faculty, operational leaders, human resources teams, clinical partners, and individuals with lived experience can help ensure hybrid work approaches are practical, inclusive, and responsive to community needs.
Applying a phased implementation approach, your institution may:
Establish Shared Leadership and Guidance
- Develop faculty-wide principles for hybrid work grounded in wellbeing, accessibility, operational needs, and equity.
- Clarify decision-making responsibilities and expectations across departments and sites.
- Align approaches, where possible, with university and clinical partner policies.
Understand Staff Experiences
- Gather feedback through surveys, listening sessions, or focus groups.
- Identify recurring concerns, inequities, or barriers across roles and departments.
- Assess how current practices affect wellbeing, collaboration, accessibility, and retention.
Implement Inclusive and Flexible Approaches
- Introduce role-based flexibility where appropriate.
- Ensure equitable access to technology and hybrid meeting tools.
- Support managers in applying expectations consistently and transparently.
- Create intentional opportunities for collaboration, mentorship, and connection across hybrid environments.
Evaluate and Adapt
- Monitor engagement, retention, and wellbeing-related indicators.
- Review hybrid work approaches regularly as organizational and operational needs evolve.
- Pilot small changes and refine approaches based on feedback and outcomes.
Opportunity for Change – Quick Wins: Identify one or two immediate actions that could improve consistency and transparency across teams, such as establishing shared communication principles, piloting designated hybrid work guidelines, or creating role-based flexibility criteria for similar positions.
Health-promoting spaces extend beyond physical infrastructure to include the organizational, virtual, and cultural environments that shape how people work and connect. Thoughtful hybrid work practices can support accessibility, wellbeing, inclusion, sustainability, and organizational culture when implemented transparently, consistently, and with shared accountability.
Case Study #2
“Unsupportive Clinical Space”
Dr. Kaur, a staff internist affiliated with a Faculty of Medicine and teaching hospital, works on a busy inpatient unit with residents, fellows, students, nurses, and interprofessional staff. Although wellbeing is an organizational priority, the clinical environment does not support rest, recovery, or connection during demanding shifts.
The unit’s only staff lounge is overcrowded, poorly lit, and often used for storage, leaving little space to eat, rest, or decompress. Clinicians and learners frequently eat at workstations while charting or responding to pages, despite guidance discouraging food consumption in clinical areas. Over time, breaks become difficult to take and increasingly viewed as optional, contributing to stress, fatigue, and strained team communication.
Although physical environments are recognized as influencing wellbeing, safety, and team functioning, there is no clear process or accountability for addressing space-related concerns. Responsibility is fragmented across multiple teams, making sustained improvements difficult to implement.
When environments do not support rest, nourishment, or recovery, unhealthy workplace norms can become normalized. Supportive spaces help reduce stress and fatigue, strengthen team culture, and reinforce wellbeing as part of safe, sustainable clinical practice.
Accessibility and Universal Design: Rest and shared spaces should be physically accessible, functional, and usable for individuals with diverse needs and abilities.
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety: Staff and learners should feel welcomed, respected, and supported within shared environments.
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration: Working and learning environments should provide opportunities for rest, nourishment, decompression, and recovery during demanding shifts.
Physical and Psychological Safety: Safe and supportive spaces help reduce stress, support infection prevention practices, and foster psychological safety around taking breaks.
Supportive Organizational Cultures: Workplace culture and leadership practices influence whether rest and wellbeing are viewed as legitimate and supported.
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments: Space planning and operational decisions should support long-term wellbeing, adaptability, and effective use of shared environments.
Accessibility and Universal Design
- Is the current space physically accessible, functional, and comfortable for all users?
- Are there barriers related to mobility, sensory needs, shift schedules, or workload that affect access to rest spaces?
- Does the environment include appropriate lighting, seating, ergonomics, ventilation, and noise considerations?
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety
- Do all members of the care team feel equally welcome and able to use the space?
- Are some groups (e.g. trainees, night-shift staff, or temporary staff) disproportionately affected by current conditions?
- How might the design or use of the space affect feelings of belonging, inclusion, or respect?
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration
- Does the environment support staff and learners in taking meaningful breaks, eating meals, and decompressing during shift?
- How are current conditions affecting stress, fatigue, morale, and energy levels?
- What immediate changes could better support rest, nourishment, and recovery?
Physical and Psychological Safety
- Do staff feel psychologically safe taking breaks without fear of judgment or appearing unproductive?
- Are staff provided with ergonomically safe and appropriate environments for rest, charting, and clinical work?
- Are current practices aligned with occupational health, safety, and infection prevention expectations?
Supportive Organizational Cultures
- What messages do current spaces and practices communicate about wellbeing and workplace culture?
- How are leaders and supervisors modeling healthy behaviours?
- Is there shared accountability for maintaining respectful, supportive, and functional environments?
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments
- Is the current use of space sustainable and responsive to the needs of staff, learners, and teams?
- Are there underused or flexible spaces that could be repurposed to better support wellbeing?
- How are space-related concerns identified, reviewed, and improved over time?
Consider how clinical, academic, or shared staff environments currently support or hinder wellbeing, inclusion, accessibility, and restoration within your institution:
- Do staff and learners have access to functional and restorative break spaces?
- Does workplace culture influence break-taking and wellbeing practices?
- Do physical environments align with occupational health, infection prevention, and accessibility standards?
- Which groups may experience disproportionate barriers to accessing supportive spaces?
- What opportunities exist to improve accountability, communication, or space design over time?
Engaging learners, staff, physicians, operational leaders, facilities teams, occupational health and safety representatives, and individuals with lived experience can help identify practical and inclusive solutions that fit the unique needs of your institution.
Applying a phased implementation approach, your institution may:
Establish Shared Leadership and Guidance
- Clarify who is responsible for identifying, maintaining, and improving staff and learner restorative and wellbeing spaces.
- Embed supportive space planning into operational, facilities, and strategic planning discussions.
- Establish shared expectations around protected and functional rest spaces within the working and learning environment.
Understand Staff and Learner Experiences
- Conduct walkthroughs, space audits, or listening sessions with staff and learners.
- Gather feedback on accessibility, comfort, functionality, and psychological safety within shared spaces.
- Identify how workload, workflow, and operational pressures affect the ability to take breaks.
Implement Inclusive and Flexible Approaches
- Declutter, redesign, or repurpose existing spaces to better support rest and recovery.
- Improve lighting, seating, ergonomics, ventilation, and noise reduction where possible.
- Ensure spaces are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive for diverse users and shift schedules.
- Reinforce workplace norms that support taking breaks and stepping away from clinical work when appropriate.
Evaluate and Adapt
- Establish regular processes for reviewing and maintaining spaces.
- Monitor staff feedback and wellbeing indicators over time.
- Incorporate supportive space planning into broader quality improvement and wellbeing initiatives.
- Reassess space needs regularly as teams, workflows, and environments evolve.
Opportunity for Change – Quick Wins: Identify low-cost improvements that could immediately enhance the staff environment, such as decluttering the lounge, improving lighting, adding ergonomic seating, or repurposing nearby underused space for breaks and restoration.
Supportive, accessible, and restorative spaces are not optional amenities; they are essential components of safe, sustainable, and health-promoting learning and work environments. Thoughtful space design, shared accountability, and supportive workplace cultures can help foster wellbeing, teamwork, and higher-quality patient care.
Case Study #3
“Unsupportive Clinical Space”
Chloe, a third-year medical student returning from parental leave, is completing a clinical rotation in a busy teaching hospital while breastfeeding. She needs access to a clean, private space to pump several times throughout the day, but the nearest lactation room is located on another floor, requires signing out a key, and is frequently occupied by staff from multiple departments. Without a dedicated nearby space, Chloe often pumps in supply rooms, call rooms, or empty offices that are not appropriate or hygienic. She feels rushed, embarrassed, and worried about falling behind, sometimes delaying or skipping pumping altogether. Over time, she becomes reluctant to advocate for her needs due to concerns about stigma or being perceived as less committed to training.
The site lacks consistent policies, processes, and accessible spaces to support lactation needs across training environments. Without clear guidance and supportive learning cultures, postpartum learners may face barriers to wellbeing, participation, and equitable learning experiences during clinical training.
Supportive, accessible, and inclusive environments help ensure learners can meet both educational and personal health needs without fear of judgment or academic disadvantage.
Accessibility and Universal Design: Lactation spaces should be accessible, functional, private, and designed to support diverse physical and caregiving needs.
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety: Learners should feel respected, supported, and able to access accommodations without stigma or exclusion.
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration: Access to safe and appropriate lactation spaces supports physical health, comfort, recovery, and wellbeing.
Physical and Psychological Safety: Learners should feel psychologically safe requesting accommodations and taking protected time for lactation needs.
Supportive Organizational Cultures: Leadership, preceptors, and teams influence whether caregiving needs are normalized and supported within learning environments.
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments: Clinical training environments should be responsive to evolving needs through proactive planning and accessible infrastructure.
Accessibility and Universal Design
- Are lactation spaces easily accessible, private, hygienic, and appropriately equipped?
- Do learners have equitable access to lactation spaces across clinical sites, shifts, and training environments?
- Are spaces designed to support diverse mobility, sensory, caregiving, and accessibility needs?
Inclusion, Belonging, and Cultural Safety
- Do learners feel comfortable requesting lactation accommodations without fear of stigma or judgment?
- How are caregiving and postpartum needs discussed and supported within the learning environment?
- Are some learners disproportionately affected by limited access to supportive facilities?
Health, Wellbeing, and Restoration
- How do current conditions affect learners’ physical comfort, stress levels, recovery, and overall wellbeing?
- Are learners able to meet their lactation needs without compromising nutrition, rest, or clinical learning?
- What supports could better enable learners to balance personal health needs with clinical responsibilities?
Physical and Psychological Safety
- Do learners and staff feel psychologically safe advocating for protected pumping time and appropriate accommodations?
- Are there clear processes for requesting support without fear of academic consequences?
- Are lactation spaces physically safe and secure?
Supportive Organizational Cultures
- How are preceptors, supervisors, and clinical teams modeling support for caregiving and lactation needs?
- Do current practices reinforce wellbeing and caregiving responsibilities as compatible with professional training?
- Are expectations around scheduling, breaks, and accommodations applied consistently and compassionately?
Sustainable and Adaptable Environments
- Are lactation supports integrated into broader planning for learner wellbeing and inclusive spaces?
- How are institutions identifying and responding to changing learner needs over time?
- Are there opportunities to repurpose or redesign existing spaces to better support postpartum learners?
Consider how learners, staff, and faculty with caregiving or lactation needs are currently supported within your institution and clinical environments:
- Do accessible and appropriate lactation spaces exist across clinical and academic sites?
- How are accommodation processes communicated and implemented?
- Do learners feel safe requesting support or protected time?
- Which groups or training environments may face disproportionate barriers?
- What opportunities exist to improve infrastructure, communication, accountability, or workplace culture?
Applying a phased implementation approach, your institution may:
Establish Shared Leadership and Guidance
- Develop faculty-wide guidance and accommodation processes for lactation needs across clinical and academic settings.
- Clarify roles and responsibilities related to access, scheduling, maintenance, and communication.
- Align policies with human rights, accessibility, and workplace accommodation requirements.
Understand Staff and Learner Experiences
- Gather feedback from postpartum learners about barriers, unmet needs, and current experiences.
- Conduct audits of lactation spaces across teaching and clinical sites.
- Identify gaps related to accessibility, scheduling, location, privacy, and availability.
Implement Inclusive and Flexible Approaches
- Create or repurpose clean, private, and accessible lactation spaces near clinical teaching areas.
- Provide comfortable seating, refrigeration access, electrical outlets, cleaning supplies, and clear signage.
- Incorporate protected pumping time into scheduling practices where possible.
- Train preceptors and supervisors to support lactation needs respectfully and consistently.
- Include lactation supports and accommodation information within learner orientation materials.
Evaluate and Adapt
- Monitor learner feedback, satisfaction, and unmet accommodation needs over time.
- Regularly review policies and space availability across sites.
- Build ongoing collaboration between learner affairs, facilities, wellbeing offices, and clinical partners.
- Integrate lactation space planning into broader wellbeing, accessibility, and supportive space initiatives.
Supportive and inclusive spaces help ensure learners can meet both professional and personal health needs safely, respectfully, and without unnecessary barriers. Accessible lactation facilities, clear accommodation processes, and supportive learning cultures are essential components of equitable, health-promoting environments.
Exploring Your Role in Health-Promoting Spaces
Health-promoting spaces are created and sustained through the collective actions of those who learn, teach, work, research, lead, and provide care within them. Every role contributes to shaping environments that support wellbeing, accessibility, inclusion, safety, and belonging.
This section explores how different roles help steward the physical, social, cultural, and virtual environments that influence everyday experiences.
Reflect on Your Role
How do the spaces I learn or work in affect wellbeing, inclusion, accessibility, or safety?
What barriers or opportunities do I notice in my environment?
What is one action I can take to help create a more supportive space?
Each role brings unique insight into how spaces are used, where barriers exist, and what changes may improve accessibility, inclusion, safety, wellbeing, and sustainability.
Provides strategic direction, resource allocation, and accountability for creating supportive, accessible, and sustainable environments.
How This Role Contributes to Health-Promoting Spaces
- Embed health-promoting spaces into institutional strategy and planning.
- Support budgets, policies, and infrastructure that advance wellbeing and accessibility.
- Establish accountability and governance structures for supportive space initiatives.
- Signal that inclusive and supportive environments are institutional priorities.
- Foster collaboration across academic, clinical, operational, and community partners.
Tip for Senior Leadership: The spaces you prioritize become culture signals. What is funded, protected, and maintained communicates what the institution values.
Translate institutional priorities into day-to-day operations and help ensure spaces are functional, accessible, and supportive in practice.
How This Role Contributes to Health-Promoting Spaces
- Coordinate space planning, scheduling, maintenance, and operational processes.
- Identify barriers related to accessibility, safety, workflow, or functionality.
- Support implementation of inclusive and sustainable space improvements.
- Gather feedback from staff, learners, faculty, and community members.
- Monitor how spaces are used and help sustain improvements over time.
Tip for Staff: Small operational changes (e.g., lighting, scheduling, signage, furniture, and access) can meaningfully improve wellbeing and inclusion.
Help shape the culture and day-to-day experience of learning and clinical environments through teaching, supervision, and team interactions.
How This Role Contributes to Health-Promoting Spaces
- Model healthy and respectful use of shared spaces.
- Support cultures where rest, accessibility, and wellbeing are normalized.
- Identify how environments affect learning, collaboration, patient care, and team functioning.
- Provide feedback on barriers or opportunities within academic and clinical spaces.
- Support learners and colleagues in accessing inclusive and supportive environments.
Tip for Faculty: Learners often take cues from faculty behaviour. How you use and respect shared spaces helps shape workplace culture.
Provide valuable lived experience and insight into how learning and clinical environments support or hinder wellbeing, accessibility, safety, and belonging.
How This Role Contributes to Health-Promoting Spaces
- Share feedback about experiences within learning and clinical environments.
- Identify barriers related to rest, study, accessibility, safety, or inclusion.
- Participate in consultations, committees, or co-design initiatives.
- Advocate for environments that support learner wellbeing and equitable participation.
- Help shape future cultures of wellbeing, accessibility, and inclusion within the profession.
Tip for Learners: Noticing and naming barriers is valuable. Lived experience helps identify issues others may overlook.
Contribute expertise and scholarship on how research environments can support safety, accessibility, inclusion, and wellbeing.
How This Role Contributes to Health-Promoting Spaces
- Promote safe, accessible, and inclusive laboratory and research environments.
- Identify barriers, hazards, or inequities within research spaces and workflows.
- Support psychologically safe and respectful research team cultures.
- Contribute expertise to research space design and planning processes.
- Model sustainable and inclusive practices within research settings.
Tip for Researchers: Safe and inclusive research environments support both scientific excellence and team wellbeing.
Moving Forward Together
Creating health-promoting spaces is an ongoing and collaborative process. Small actions at every level of the institution can contribute to sustainable, supportive, and inclusive environments over time.
Health-promoting spaces are strengthened when people work together to:
- Identify barriers and opportunities for improvement
- Foster physical, psychological, and culturally safe environments
- Support accessibility, restoration, and connection
- Align operational decisions with wellbeing and sustainability goals
- Embed health promotion into everyday learning and work environments
Whether you are leading institutional strategy, coordinating operations, teaching learners, conducting research, or navigating training environments yourself, your perspective and actions can help shape spaces that better support the wellbeing and success of the entire community.
Tools and Resources
This section provides practical tools and resources to support the planning, development, evaluation, and improvement of sustainable, supportive, and inclusive spaces.
What you’ll find in this section
- Prioritizing Health-Promoting Space Needs
- Health-Promoting Spaces: Wellbeing, Inclusion, and Accessibility Summary
- Health-Promoting Spaces Audit Checklist
- Sample Questions to Explore Health-Promoting Space Needs
- Supportive Spaces Action Planning Template
- Quick Wins for Supportive Spaces
- Additional Tools and Approaches for Health-Promoting Spaces
Adapt and use what is most relevant to your context.
Continue exploring the toolkit:
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Develop and Implement Health-Promoting Policy
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Foster Thriving Medical Communities and Culture