The impacts of visual comfort on pediatric oncology intensive care units

Abstract

Patient's discomfort in hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) regarding infrastructure, the lack of natural light and complementary artificial light, as well as colours found in these environments are important humanization concerns directly affecting the physical and emotional well-being of patients, caregivers and the multidisciplinary team, especially in paediatric oncology ICUS, which are stressful environments. This paper sought to answer relevant questions about visual comfort and traces of stress experienced by caregivers and a multidisciplinary team in a paediatric oncology ICU. For this purpose, a Visual Comfort Questionnaire and a Lipp’s Stress Symptoms Inventory were applied to obtain participants´ feedback at a [hospital] in Brazil. The results showed that caregivers and employees pointed out the need to have more windows in the environment, addressing the importance of natural light for physical and emotional well-being. Based on this, a significant number of employees and companions associate stress to the everyday life in the ICU, which occurred mainly in the intermediate (resistance) or final (exhaustion) phases, according to the Lipp scale. These results showed the importance of a broader approach to hospital humanization.