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Children in hospital: a design question
1School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. vavili@vergina.eng.auth.gr
Insights
Designing child-friendly hospital environments is crucial for their well-being. This involves considering psychological needs and family involvement to reduce stress during illness and hospitalization.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare design
- Hospital architecture for children
- Child psychology in medical settings
Background:
- Holistic medicine emphasizes patient experience beyond diagnosis and treatment.
- Children face unique challenges in hospitals, including separation from family and an unfamiliar environment.
- Past efforts have focused on improving hospital design for children over the last 50 years.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore a shift in child care philosophy impacting facility design.
- To examine the influence of family presence and psychological needs on hospital design.
- To investigate design parameters and standards for pediatric healthcare environments.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and analysis of design principles for pediatric healthcare.
- Exploration of psychological needs as key design factors (security, social contact, personal space, etc.).
- Discussion of the importance of scale in designing for children as individuals.
Main Results:
- Child-centered design should prioritize minimizing unnatural experiences and discomfort.
- Key design elements include family-centered care, play facilities, and appropriate scale.
- Addressing psychological needs through environmental design is vital for children's adjustment.
Conclusions:
- A holistic approach to pediatric healthcare design is essential.
- Designing child-friendly hospital spaces requires a deep understanding of children's psychological and developmental needs.
- Family involvement and appropriate environmental factors significantly improve a child's hospital experience.
Abstract:
Holistic medicine is the global trend in medical care. It involves not only the highest possible standard of diagnosis and treatment, but also designing the whole experience of being ill and that of hospitalization. In such a frame, planning and designing for children has to be considered in such a way that a child will be helped to withstand the effects of illness, the separation from home and family and the entrance into an unusual, unfamiliar and strange world. Although the wellbeing and happiness of children in hospital is the concern of the nursing staff and of the parents, many other factors have to be satisfied also. A young ill child who has to be treated in hospital has to adjust to a number of environmental and treatment conditions which may be upsetting and may have far-reaching effects. Because of all these, much effort has been made, over the last fifty years, to develop planning and design aspects, which will make a child's life in hospital less unnatural. Furthermore, it will reduce the unavoidable and inevitable discomfort, disease, pain and misery experienced by children. These aspects include avoidance of admission of children into hospital whenever possible, operations on a daily basis, unrestricted visits, encouraging of parents to visit or to stay with their children, the provision of suitable playing facilities, materials, equipment etc. This paper will seek to explore and develop: a change in philosophy in child care, its influence on the various types of facilities, the importance of the family, the psychological needs as design factors such as security, social contacts, personal space, movement, comfort, independence, outdoor spaces and others. Factors relating to design parameters and standards will also be explored. The meaning and importance of scale is highlighted since it is felt that children are not miniature adults, but individuals with their own particular capacities.