Designing Well-Being: A Qualitative Investigation of Young Patients’ Perspectives on the Material Hospital Environment

BACKGROUND: Physical surroundings of healthcare facilities are suggested to influence young patients’ well-being and hospitalization experiences. PURPOSE: The current research seeks to understand young patients’ views and perspectives of the hospital lobby and inpatient rooms. Thus, a qualitative study was carried out in a social pediatric clinic for young patients with disabilities, developmental delays, behavioral problems, and chronic health conditions, that is undergoing reconstruction. METHOD: Operating from a critical realist position, the study employed arts-based methods in conjunction with semi-structured interviews. The data were explored by employing thematic analysis. RESULTS: 37 young people between the age of four and 30 years participated in the study. The analysis illustrates that the built environment should contain comforting and joyful elements, while enabling patients’ autonomy. The ideal lobby was depicted as open and accessible and an ideal patient room as practical and adapted to personal needs. CONCLUSION: It is suggested that disabling and medicalized spatial arrangements and features may restrict young people’s sense of control and autonomy, while possibly posing a barrier to a health-promoting environment. Large and open spaces with comforting and distracting features are cherished by patients and may be embedded in a comprehensive, yet simple overall design and structural concept.