Ways to harness the built environment of ambulatory cancer facilities for comprehensive patient support: A review of the literature.

Objective: To review patient experiences of the architectural elements conducive to a supportive or healing-promoting environment in the context of ambulatory oncology care.

Design: A comprehensive review of original peer-reviewed qualitative studies conducted to reveal the meaning and significance of patient experience in this context was undertaken.

Data Sources: Studies were identified through electronic databases including Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, PubMed and Embase.

Attractions to Fuel the Imagination: Reframing Understandings of the Role of Distraction Relative to Well-Being in the Pediatric Hospital.

Objective: Ulrich's (1991) definition of "positive distraction" includes that which "elicits positive feelings and holds attention," implying that the capacity of an environmental feature to hold attention is a necessary component. This article examines whether, in the context of a pediatric hospital, a distraction needs to "hold attention" to secure positive benefits for patient well-being.

Background: Data collected from 246 patients at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital (Australia) revealed a discrepancy between what children and young people told us they did, and valued, within the hospital, relative to the time they spent engaging in, or paying attention to, these same features.

The accuracy with which adults who do not stutter predict stuttering-related communication attitudes.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which adults who do not stutter can predict communication-related attitudes of adults who do stutter. 40 participants (mean age of 22.5 years) evaluated speech samples from an adult with mild stuttering and an adult with severe stuttering via audio-only (n=20) or audio-visual (n=20) modes to predict how the adults had responded on the S24 scale of communication attitudes.

International travel as medical research: architecture and the modern hospital.

The design and development of the modern hospital in Australia had a profound impact on medical practice and research at a variety of levels. Between the late 1920s and the 1950s hospital architects, administrators, and politicians travelled widely in order to review the latest international developments in the hospital field They were motivated by Australia's geographic isolation and a growing concern with how to govern the population at the level of physical health. While not 'medical research' in the conventional sense of the term, this travel was a powerful generator of medical thinking in Australia and has left a rich archival legacy.