Format:
56 pages :
,
illustrations ;
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30 x 21 cm.
Content:
MACHINE-GENERATED SUMMARY NOTE :
A universal human experience in a place where thoughts spiral, agitation and anxiety grow, and you have no indication of how much longer you will be stuck there. Waiting rooms in medical institutions trigger for many people a myriad of negative emotions and frustration at their general unsuitability and one could say neglect of the user experience. (Montgomery, 2017, 114)
The event of waiting takes on a very inflated scope of stress and anxiety with a young child who may or may not be ill in that moment. The focus of this bachelor project is on the needs of this particular user group: that of a parent1 and child and how they could be better met in the design of healthcare facility waiting rooms. While any space can be defined as a waiting room by placing a chair in a room, could this concept be reinvented or improved?
It is easy enough to rely on personal experience to validate the problem but looking no further than the clinic review page of the local hospital pediatric ward, will display a number of parent reviews on their experience. While it can be assumed that dissatisfaction is a common motivator for an opportunity to vent, one of the categories they are invited to rate on a star system among others is ‘furnishings and design’, with space to share their story, unsurprisingly, reviews of waiting spaces where mentioned are rarely positive. (Medizinfo)
Waiting to be seen by a health expert is all too common. According to the European Commission Eurostat statistics gathered on the average number of consultations per EU Member State inhabitant during 2017, most countries fall between 4 and 10. Germany weighs in at the upper end of the scale at an average of 10 consultations per person a year2. (Eurostat 2017)
From the perspective of a parent, where any form of waiting with small children can feel like a form of punishment, this particular form within the context of healthcare facilities, comes with a unique and additional anxiety. More specifically, that it either involves a sick child, a routine check-up which could reveal new concerns, and or the exposure of a healthy child to a place where sick and potentially infectious children will be or have been.
From a study taken in an Italian hospital which investigated the experience of families waiting for treatment in day hospitals, ethnographic data gathered from the patients and their parents revealed that it was the parents and not the child patients who were dealing with feeling anxiety and concern. (Corsano, 2015) Boredom is often used synonymously with waiting (Hedges, 2018, 99), likely a common sentiment shared even more so with children who are asked to sit and wait. If not unwell this will be the main challenge for the waiting child, and prolonged boredom can lead to agitation and feelings of negativity. (Holinger, 2020)
Note:
DISSERTATION NOTE : submitted as bachelor thesis in Interior Architecture / Interior Design, Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, 2021
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MACHINE-GENERATED CONTENTS NOTE :
Figures 6
1. INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 Methodology 10 1.2 Gap in Knowledge 11
2. 2021: WHY ARE WE WAITING? 12 2.1 Post-pandemic Waiting Rooms 13
3. HEALTHCARE WAITING ROOMS
3.1 Parents & Children 15 3.2 Significance & Psychological Effects 15 3.3 Physiological Effects 18 3.4 Play 21
4. DESIGN PROJECT: MEETING NEEDS OF PARENTS & CHILDREN 4.1 The Site 23 4.1.1 Description of CBF 23
4.2 The Waiting Spaces
4.2.1 Waiting I 26 4.2.2 Waiting II 27 4.2.3 Waiting III 29
4.3 The Design Proposal: Solution I
4.3.1 The Module: Panels & Connectors 31 4.3.2 The Module: The Combination 33 4.3.3 Waiting I 35 4.3.4 Waiting II 35 4.3.5 Waiting III/A 37
4.4 The Design Proposal: Solution II the PLAYROOM
4.4.1 Waiting III/B 41
5. CONCLUSION 47
References 49
Language:
English
Keywords:
Academic theses
