Insights & Solutions

On Part 2 of today’s episode with Dame Laura Lee, DBE, Chief Executive of Maggie's –Everyone’s Home for Cancer Care, Laura shares details of the special gardens at Maggie’s, and how thoughtfully they are designed to nourish every visitor, supporting both optimistic and challengi

What happened in 1995 when a 30 year old Clinical Oncology Nurse Specialist at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland gave chemotherapy to her breast cancer patient named Maggie Keswick Jencks?

Kelada, L., Wakefield, C. E., De Graves, S., Treadgold, C., Dumlao, G., Schaffer, M., O'Brien, T., (2021) Evaluation of an in-hospital recreation room for hospitalised children and their families. Journal of Pediatric Nursing

The play room in this pediatric hospital is the great escape. Let’s use this research and design an escape to get in, not get out.

Noble, L., Devlin, A. S., (2021) Perceptions of psychotherapy waiting rooms: Design recommendations. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal

The results here tell us far more about what does not work in the design of a behavioral health waiting room, rather than what does work, and the authors propose some types of waiting rooms may give patients the impression that the practitioner does not care about their wellbeing while waiting.

Rubio, N., Macías, F., Gómez, E., (2021) The Children’s Council as a mean of participation in a hospital. American Journal of Nursing Studies

This study shows that “serious play” is a creative way to gain the insight of children through a design decision making process.

ARCH Design's objective was to support an enhanced patient experience by developing a localized artwork program representing the region's culturally diverse population, creating comfort and connection through relevant and familiar imagery. Evidence-based design guided the artwork selections by focusing on how it would impact both patients and caregivers.

There were key goals addressed to guide the design excellence parameters: to promote recovery and transition; to foster connection and connectivity with people and their surroundings; to create a healing environment; to enhance the staff and patient experience; to enhance co-mingling (of staff, patients, visitors and community); and to reduce stigma.