https://goo.gl/qgpZw5
Staying in a hospital is not easy on the senses. (I’ve written a little about this before.) Having spent time on hospital floors as a volunteer, designer and patient I’ve experienced many of the harsh sensations that impact people (patients, families and staff )— things like bad smells, loud sounds, and scary sights. These contribute to a more stressful and less healing hospital experience, and I know we can improve.
I’d like to first break some of these problems down in more detail, and then we can have some fun thinking of wild ideas for how to make things better.
Sounds
Alarms and beeps from diverse machines are dissonant and constant.
Alarms and beeps from diverse machines are dissonant and constant.
Smells
Walking into a hospital, right away you notice a different smell profile. It’s antiseptic, a little bitter, with undertones of the artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaners. On patient floors, the smells become more intense and diverse.
Sights
Walking the floor as a volunteer, I likely witnessed more troubling sights than most patients (though surely far fewer than staff). Casually walking past rooms I saw people with swollen and clearly infected body parts, and others who were very sick, wasting away and dying.