Making Spaces for Staff Breaks: A Design Anthropology Approach.

Area of Science:

• Anthropology of design
• Healthcare architecture
• Social science in design

Background:

• Growing interest in sensory and experiential aspects of hospital design.
• Need for social science approaches to understand staff well-being in healthcare environments.
• Limited research on sensory environments specifically for staff breaks.

Purpose of the Study:

• Propose and demonstrate a design anthropological approach for hospital design.
• Apply this approach to the design of staff break areas.
• Advance discussions on creating supportive hospital environments for staff.

Main Methods:

• Utilized design anthropology and ethnographic research.
• Focused on the everyday experiences of hospital staff in a new psychiatric department.
• Gathered insights into improvisatory activities and future aspirations of staff.

Main Results:

• Experiential and unspoken staff knowledge is crucial and often missed by traditional methods.
• Staff well-being depends on practical resources and qualities beyond conventional design elements like light and green spaces.
• Staff actively improvise to create well-being within their environments.

Conclusions:

• Shift focus from environments impacting staff well-being to staff actively creating well-being.
• Advocate for policy changes that prioritize staff as key users in hospital design.
• Highlight the need for architects and designers to consider practical staff needs beyond generic briefs.