Control in healthcare interiors: the staff’s perspective

Abstract

As two of the most stressful professions, doctors and nurses work intensively in direct contact with patients. However, there has been little research into their perception of and satisfaction with healthcare interiors. To fill this gap in the literature, this study evaluated the working, resting, and dining spaces of healthcare staff in terms of control. Specifically, privacy, boundary and territory, and environmental control were analyzed in four state hospitals as case studies. Following a literature review, observations, semi-structured interviews, and surveys were conducted with doctors and nurses from the four hospitals in 2017. The findings showed that controlling privacy, boundaries, and environmental control elements like natural and artificial lighting, noise and odour were important for the participants. This indicates a need to ensure privacy and boundaries more effectively through separate spaces and furniture while noise and odour should also be given more attention.