Preliminary Development of Items for a Nurses' Physical Environmental Stress Scale.

Research Purpose: This study aimed to develop a preliminary Nurses' Physical Environmental Stress Scale (NPESS) that explores the relationships between the physical environment in the intensive care unit (ICU) and work-related stress among ICU nurses.

Background: Working within the healthcare field is stressful and comes with a high level of responsibility for nurses, especially ICU nurses. The ICU work environment is associated with risk factors such as excessive workload, increased expectations, and long working hours that can lead to burnout among nurses.

From Stressful to Mindful: Reactions to a Proposed Emergency Department Design for Enhancing Mindfulness and Stress Reduction Among Healthcare Clinical Staff.

Objectives: This study explored design solutions that can help clinicians manage work-related stress, pursue mindful work, and practice relaxation and coping strategies.

Background: Clinicians are experiencing burnout at increasingly higher rates, leading to compromised patient care. While self-care and stress management strategies are shown to be effective in healthcare settings, little is known about how the design of healthcare settings can facilitate these strategies.

Using Space Syntax Analysis to Measure Patient Aggression Risk.

Objectives: The present study investigates whether space syntax offers appropriate tools for identifying risks of aggression, interventional opportunities, and environmental design strategies to reduce the risk of Type II violence in emergency departments.

Background: Although healthcare workers are a relatively small percentage of the U.S.

Coping and Caregiving: Leveraging Environmental Design to Moderate Stress Among Healthcare Workers in the Emergency Department Setting.

Background: Due to exposure to overwhelming work stressors, approximately half of emergency department (ED) physicians and nurses experience burnout, leading to lower productivity, lower quality of care, higher risk of medical errors, higher rates of absenteeism, and eventually turnover. Growing evidence suggests that the physical environment can be leveraged to support healthcare workers' well-being.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify (1) self-care behaviors that healthcare workers engage in to help them cope with job-related stress, (2) where they engage in those behaviors, (3) attributes of the built environment that may support coping behaviors.

Investigating the Feasibility of Multisensory Environments to Improve the Assisted Bathing Experience for Veterans With Dementia: A Clinical Trial.

Objectives: This evidence-based design clinical trial assessed the feasibility of a multisensory environment (MSE) using aromatherapy, color-changing lights, and music as a behavioral intervention to calm with dementia during assisted bathing to improve the patient experience.

Background: The number of Veterans with dementia is growing rapidly, along with the associated debilitating behavior challenges. The severity of these distressed behaviors that predominantly occur at bath time often necessitates costly, dangerous sedatives.

In the Moment: Fostering Mindfulness and Reducing Stressors in the Healthcare Workplace.

While healthcare design research has primarily focused on patient outcomes, there is a growing recognition that environmental interventions could do more by promoting the overall quality of care, and this requires expanding the focus to the health and well-being of those who deliver care to patients. Healthcare professionals are under high levels of stress, leading to burnout, job dissatisfaction, and poor patient care. Among other tools, mindfulness is recommended as a way of decreasing stress and helping workers function at higher levels.

Investigating the Impact of Healthcare Environmental Design on Staff Security: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To systematically review the literature regarding the role of the physical environment in preventing or mitigating aggressive behavior toward healthcare professionals in acute care, outpatient, and psychiatric/behavioral health facilities.

Background: Globally, the incidence of violence against healthcare professionals is alarming. Poor environmental design has been identified as a risk factor of violence toward employees.

Impact of Multisensory Environments on Behavior for People With Dementia: A Systematic Literature Review.

Purpose Of The Study: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) affect quality of life for people with dementia. Nonpharmacological interventions are the preferred first line of treatment, and it is theorized that BPSD are directly influenced by sensory imbalance and improved by sensory equilibrium. The purpose of this article is to investigate the evidence regarding the use of multisensory environments (MSEs) as treatment for BPSD.

Key Spatial Factors Influencing the Perceived Privacy in Nursing Units: An Exploration Study With Eight Nursing Units in Hong Kong.

Aim: This study examined how the spatial characteristics of patient beds, which are influenced by patient room design and nursing unit configuration, affect patients' perceptions about privacy.

Background: In the hospital setting, most patients expect a certain degree of privacy but also understand that their caregivers need appropriate access to them in order to provide high-quality care. Even veteran healthcare designers may struggle to create just the right balance between privacy and accessibility.

Flying solo: A review of the literature on wayfinding for older adults experiencing visual or cognitive decline.

Accessible tourism is a growing market within the travel industry, but little research has focused on travel barriers for older adults who may be experiencing visual and cognitive decline as part of the normal aging process, illness, or other disabling conditions. Travel barriers, such as difficulty finding one's way throughout an airport, may adversely affect older adults' travel experience, thereby reducing their desire to travel. This review of the literature investigates wayfinding strategies to ensure that older passengers who have planned to travel independently can do so with dignity.

Environmental affordances: designing for family presence and involvement in patient care.

Objective: This comparative study in two ICUs examines the impact of the patient-centered unit design on family involvement, operationalized as percentages of family presence and family-patient/family-staff interaction in patient rooms.

Background: As hospitals have become more patient-centered, there has been a trend toward including a family area inside the patient area to promote family presence, support, and involvement in patient care. There is growing evidence that family members play an important role in supporting patient care, and that the physical environment affects family involvement.

An investigation of noncompliant toilet room designs for assisted toileting.

Objective: By comparing an Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) compliant design with alternative designs, this pilot study resulted in recommendations for designing patient bathrooms to facilitate assisted toileting.

Background: The ADA Accessibility Guidelines were developed primarily to address the needs of disabled populations, such as returning Vietnam veterans, with sufficient upper body strength to transfer independently directly from a wheelchair to the toilet. However, the majority of older persons with disabilities (90%) stand to transfer to the toilet, rather than laterally moving from the wheelchair to the toilet.

Staff Perceptions Before and After Adding Single-Family Rooms in the NICU.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate staff perceptions of environmental quality before and after the renovation of an existing open-bay neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the addition of 23 single-family NICU rooms in the Wasie Neonatal ICU at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.

Background: In recent years there has been an increase in the design and construction of single-family rooms (SFRs) because they provide more privacy for families, offer better control over environmental stimuli such as lighting and noise, and possibly reduce infections. On the other hand, this model can cause staff members to feel isolated from one another, reduce their ability to respond quickly in a crisis situation, or impose additional demands on them.