A randomized controlled trial of Golden Ratio, Feng Shui, and evidence based design in healthcare.

Background: In a global effort to design better hospital buildings for people and organizations, some design principles are still surrounded by great mystery. The aim of this online study was to compare anxiety in an existing single-bed inpatient hospital room with three redesigns of this room in accordance with the principles of Golden Ratio, Feng Shui, and Evidence-Based Design.

Methods: In this online multi-arm parallel-group randomized trial participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to one of four conditions, namely Golden Ratio condition, Feng Shui condition, Evidence-Based Design condition, or the control condition.

Challenging Behavior in Context: A Case Study on How People, Space, and Activities Interact.

Aim: We aim to gain insight into the interaction between challenging behavior as shown by individuals with an intellectual impairment, and space, and to explore the possibilities of using routinely collected data to this end.

Background: Research on challenging behavior by intellectually impaired individuals links their behavior to context, which includes space. Unfortunately, research about this link is hard to conduct, since these individuals may have difficulties expressing themselves verbally and react extremely to sensory stimuli.

The 5-Minute Campus.

As campuses wish to stimulate interactions among different campus users, we aim to identify why some locations are successful in fostering unplanned meetings while others are not. This can help campus managers, directors, and other practitioners to optimize their campus to facilitate unplanned meetings between academic staff and companies. Findings of a previous survey were discussed in five focus groups, which were transcribed and thematically coded.

Workplace impact on employees: A Lifelines Corona Research Initiative on the return to work.

A large proportion of the global workforce migrated home during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. It remains unclear what the exact differences between home workers and non-home workers were, especially during the pandemic when a return to work was imminent. How were building, workplace, and related facilities associated with workers' perceptions and health? What are the lessons to be learned? Lifelines Corona Research Initiative was used to compare employees' workplaces and related concerns, facilities, work quality, and health in a complete case analysis (N = 12,776) when return to work was imminent.

On Serendipitous Campus Meetings: A User Survey.

With campuses opening up and stimulating interactions among different campus users more and more, we aim to identify the characteristics of successful meeting places (locations) on campus. These can help practitioners such as campus managers and directors to further optimize their campus to facilitate unplanned or serendipitous meetings between academic staff and companies. A survey on three Dutch campuses, including questions on both services and locations, was analyzed both spatially and statistically using principal component (PC) and regression analysis.

A systematic approach to quantify the influence of indoor environmental parameters on students' perceptions, responses, and short-term academic performance.

Several studies found that classrooms' indoor environmental quality (IEQ) can positively influence in-class activities. Understanding and quantifying the combined effect of four indoor environmental parameters, namely indoor air quality and thermal, acoustic, and lighting conditions on people is essential to create an optimal IEQ. Accordingly, a systematic approach was developed to study the effect of multiple IEQ parameters simultaneously.

Effects of lactation room quality on working mothers' feelings and thoughts related to breastfeeding and work: a randomized controlled trial and a field experiment.

Background: The challenging combination of breastfeeding and work is one of the main reasons for early breastfeeding cessation. Although the availability of a lactation room (defined as a private space designated for milk expression or breastfeeding) is important in enabling the combination of breastfeeding and work, little is known about the effects of lactation room quality on mothers' feelings and thoughts related to breastfeeding and work. We hypothesized that a high-quality lactation room (designed using the Theory of Supportive Design) would cause mothers to experience less stress, have more positive thoughts about milk expression at work, perceive more organizational support, and report more subjective well-being, than a low-quality lactation room.

How does architecture contribute to reducing behaviours that challenge? A scoping review.

Background: Behaviours that challenge might prevent intellectually impaired individuals from experiencing a good quality of life (QoL). These behaviours arise in interaction with the environment and can be positively or negatively affected by architecture.

Aim: This scoping review explores how architecture contributes to the QoL of individuals engaging in such behaviours.

A cross-sectional study of lactation room quality and Dutch working mothers' satisfaction, perceived ease of, and perceived support for breast milk expression at work.

Background: The challenge of combining professional work and breastfeeding is a key reason why women choose not to breastfeed or to stop breastfeeding early. We posited that having access to a high-quality lactation room at the workplace could influence working mothers' satisfaction and perceptions related to expressing breast milk at work, which could have important longer term consequences for the duration of breastfeeding. Specifically, we aimed to (1) develop a checklist for assessing the quality of lactation rooms and (2) explore how lactation room quality affects lactating mothers' satisfaction and perceptions.

Classrooms' indoor environmental conditions affecting the academic achievement of students and teachers in higher education: A systematic literature review.

This study reports the outcomes of a systematic literature review, which aims to determine the influence of four indoor environmental parameters - indoor air, thermal, acoustic, and lighting conditions -on the quality of teaching and learning and on students' academic achievement in schools for higher education, defined as education at a college or university. By applying the Cochrane Collaboration Method, relevant scientific evidence was identified by systematically searching in multiple databases. After the screening process, 21 publications of high relevance and quality were included.

Individual differences in satisfaction with activity-based work environments.

Satisfaction with activity-based work environments (ABW environments) often falls short of expectations, with striking differences among individual workers. A better understanding of these differences may provide clues for optimising satisfaction with ABW environments and associated organisational outcomes. The current study was designed to examine how specific psychological needs, job characteristics, and demographic variables relate to satisfaction with ABW environments.

Route complexity and simulated physical ageing negatively influence wayfinding.

The aim of this age-simulation field experiment was to assess the influence of route complexity and physical ageing on wayfinding. Seventy-five people (aged 18-28) performed a total of 108 wayfinding tasks (i.e.

Counter design influences the privacy of patients in health care.

A re-furnishing of counter areas in primary health care was used to assess patient privacy and its influences on the nature of conversations in a controlled experiment. Patients in two community-based pharmacies in the Netherlands were assigned to enclosed counters and a queue at distance, or to counters that exposed patients mutually and a closer queue. Patients assigned to counters with reduced sight were more satisfied with the privacy than patients at visually exposed counters.

The counter and consultation room work explored in the Netherlands.

Objective: To determine the frequency and nature of conversations at the counter and of private consultations at three Dutch community pharmacies.

Methods: In a purposive and convenience sample of three Dutch community pharmacies two work categories were investigated: counter work and consultation room work with self-reporting tally. The study took 6 weeks: 2 weeks at each pharmacy.

Consumer behaviour in the waiting area.

Objective Of The Study: To determine consumer behaviour in the pharmacy waiting area.

Method: The applied methods for data-collection were direct observations. Three Dutch community pharmacies were selected for the study.

The merits of a robot: a Dutch experience.

Purpose: To determine the merits of a robot at the community pharmacy in a quasi-experiment.

Method: The applied methods for data-collection were barcode-time measurements, direct observations, time-interval studies, and tally at a Dutch community pharmacy. The topics consisted of workload, waiting times, congestion, slack, general work, counter work, and work at the consultation room.

The transformation of pharmacy concepts into building and organization.

Objective Of The Study: To explore the transformation of soft systems pharmacy concepts, with a special attention for pharmaceutical care, into hard systems properties of building and organization in community-based pharmacy practice in The Netherlands.

Method: The applied methods for data-collection were interviews. The interviews were conducted at eight community pharmacies and four architectural firms.

Pharmaceutical care research: hard or soft?--Part II.

In pharmaceutical care research (PCR) quantitative research methodologies are strongly represented. However, in PCR also other qualities should be included in the tool kit of the researcher. For that purpose, it is argued that social science provides rich frameworks applicable for PCR.