Interior Environments in Long-Term Care Units From the Theory of Supportive Design

Aim: This study was designed to examine how residents in long-term care (LTC) units perceive their living environment based on the theory of supportive design. Background: Healthcare environments may cause a significant level of stress mainly due to patients’ lack of familiarity with such environments and patients’ poor health conditions. According to the theory, the healthcare environments providing a sense of control, social support, and positive distraction can promote wellness. This study was designed to learn how LTC residents perceive their current living environments. Method: This study collected data through qualitative interviews. A total of 48 residents living in two LTC units were asked the three interior environments they liked and they wanted to improve. Only the residents who lived in the current space for 1 month and communicate without any cognitive disabilities were able to participate. Most residents were female and lived in a private room. Results: The participants’ responses indicated the importance of perceived control, social support, and positive distraction in the environment. The most frequently mentioned interior environment that the residents liked was “window and view,” followed by “pictures and photos” and “TV,” while they wanted “bigger room and space,” followed by “improved privacy” and “more options for food.” In addition to the three elements, the participants considered other elements as important for them which can benefit the participants. Conclusion: More studies must be carried out to expand the theory, so that it can be applied to future studies with inclusive perspectives.

The Psychological Supportive Design Features in Hospitals: Case of a Public Jordanian Hospital in Amman

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a practical framework that combines the psychological supportive design features in hospitals’ healing environments, also, to examine the implementation of these features in a Jordanian public hospital. Background: Positive psychological feelings are the hidden powerful treatment in hospitals. Although that Jordan represents a third-world country, it is counted as one of the most sought-after healthcare locations in the Middle East for its distinguished healthcare serveries (Private Hospitals Association, 2019). Nevertheless, the architectural and interior design of the healthcare facilities in Jordan usually ignores the inpatients’ psychological needs. Also, there is an absence of practicing a set of psychological supportive design features to guide the hospitals’ design in Jordan. Method: Design features are obtained from the main theories in the field of supportive healing environments. A large Jordanian public hospital was selected to be assessed in terms of these features within the developed practical framework. This study adopts a mixed methodology; data are collected using different methods, mainly literature review, site inventory, and inpatients’ questionnaire. Results: The studied hospital remains moderately considerable in terms of the psychologically supportive design features. However, the nature connectivity aspect is not satisfactorily considered in the studied hospital design. Conclusion: This study suggests a responsive design that fosters interaction and integration with surrounding nature in order to increase levels of connectivity with nature. The studied design features in this study could work as guiding principles for Jordanian hospitals’ designers.

Cross-cultural Design and Healthcare Waiting Rooms for Indigenous People in Regional Australia

The theory of supportive design influences healthcare facility design but is under-researched for different cultural groups. This mixed-methods study compared two Indigenous sample populations in Australia to examine the effect of the physical environment in public hospitals and clinics on Indigenous people’s perceptions and experiences of waiting for care. Quantitative survey data ( n = 602) measured perceptions of relevant design attributes using paired images in a screen-based survey. Semi-structured interviews ( n = 55) identified concerns about the physical healthcare environment including waiting rooms. Ceiling heights, seating arrangements and views to the outside were significant showing commonalities between perceptions of the two populations. The interviews revealed that cultural and social constructs, including privacy, fear, shame, and racism, were significant and that people’s perceptions were influenced by colonization and independent of location. Our study highlights the importance of a cross-cultural approach to supportive design interventions for spatial and symbolic treatments of waiting areas.

Tools for Wellbeing-Supportive Design: Features, Characteristics, and Prototypes

While research on wellbeing within Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an active space, a gap between research and practice persists. To tackle this, we sought to identify the practical needs of designers in taking wellbeing research into practice. We report on 15 semi-structured interviews with designers from four continents, yielding insights into design tool use generally and requirements for wellbeing design tools specifically. We then present five resulting design tool concepts, two of which were further developed into prototypes and tested in a workshop with 34 interaction design and HCI professionals. Findings include seven desirable features and three desirable characteristics for wellbeing-supportive design tools, including that these tools should satisfy the need for proof, buy-in, and tangibility. We also provide clarity around the notion of design for wellbeing and why it must be distinguished from design for positive emotions.

Ambient Scent as a Positive Distraction in Long-Term Care Units: Theory of Supportive Design

Aim: This study was designed to explore the associations between an ambient scent environment and residents’ wellness in long-term care facilities. Background: The number of older adults living in an institutional setting has been steadily but slowly increasing. Because of a higher chance of having psychological disorders among people living in institutional settings than people living in noninstitutional settings, providing a supportive institutional setting is critical to enhance their wellness. The theory of supportive design suggests healthcare facilities can lower people’s stress levels via three conditions (i.e., perceived control, social support, and positive distractions). Method: A single-blind and placebo-randomized controlled study investigated the impacts of ambient scent environment, as a positive distraction, on residents’ depression levels. The recruited residents ( N = 58) were randomly assigned into either the intervention group, which received a 1% dilution of lavender scent for 2 weeks nearby their bedside or the placebo group, which received a nonscent for 2 weeks. Results: Their depression levels were measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale. Based on the t tests, both intervention and placebo groups had improvement in depression, indicating a placebo effect of lavender scent. Further regression analyses explored the interaction effects of built environments (e.g., building, distance to a ventilation system, and square footage). However, no statistically significant impact of the built environment was found. Conclusion: Despite a placebo effect of ambient scent environment and nonsignificant built environment on depression, this study has valuable implications of being a positive distraction during the healing process as developed by the Theory of Supportive design.

Hotel-like hospital rooms’ impact on patient well-being and willingness to pay

Purpose The study aims to examine how features that foster a sense of control, create positive distractions and provide access to social support influence patients’ well-being and, subsequently, their likelihood to choose hotel-like hospital rooms and their willingness to pay higher out-of-pocket expenses for such rooms. While there is increasing evidence to suggest the importance of the provision of hospitality in healthcare settings, research on these developments remains under-represented, particularly in the hospitality literature. In response, the present study builds on Ulrich’s (1991) theory of supportive design to examine patient responses to hotel-like features in a hospital room. Design/methodology/approach Using data from a survey of 406 patients, the authors used structural equation modeling to test the model. Findings Consistent with supportive design principles, the infusion of hotel-like features that foster a sense of control for patients, create positive distractions and provide access to social support was found to positively impact patients’ physical and mental well-being, which, in turn, increased their likelihood to choose a hospital room with hotel-like features and their willingness to pay for such rooms. Practical Implications Findings attest to the need for healthcare providers to make the necessary investment in hotel-like features and to leverage the communicative power of these environmental cues. Social support in the form of hospitality-trained and certified healthcare staff was found to be the most important hotel-like feature, which also presents significant commercial opportunities for hospitality companies and professionals. Originality Value The study represents one of the first attempts to empirically develop a structured model to examine the infusion of hospitality into healthcare. It provides researchers with a theoretically supported framework for future inquiry into the domain. It also makes a significant contribution to advancing the research on patient well-being in healthcare settings and demonstrates the importance of hospitality to such endeavors.

The Role of Hospital Design in Reducing Anxiety for Pediatric Patients

Objectives: To study the impact of hospital design on patient and family experiences during and after hospitalization. Background: Hospitalization can be psychologically traumatic for children. Few research studies have studied the role of the design of the hospital environment in mitigating that traumatic experience. Methods: The study employs a two-group posttest and follow-up design to compare the impact of hospitalization on child anxiety and parent stress. It compares the experiences of children (ages 3–17) hospitalized at a new facility designed to support child-centered care and with family-friendly features with an older facility that did not have these features. The new facility was a replacement of the old one, so that many challenges to comparison are addressed. Results: Controlling for the facts of hospitalization, patient demographics, and the child’s typical anxiety level, children in the new facility experienced less anxiety than in the old facility. The study does not provide evidence that the hospital design reduced the psychological sequelae of hospitalization. Parents and children found different features of the hospital to be restorative. Conclusions: The study supports the use of Ulrich’s theory of supportive design to children’s healthcare environments, though what is experienced as supportive design will vary by the developmental stage of the child.