Small Garden, Big Impact: Emotional and Behavioral Responses of Visitors to a Rooftop Atrium in a Major Hospital

Abstract

Purpose: To measure hospital visitors’ satisfaction with a rooftop atrium and its resultant impact on the visitors’ behavioral intentions toward the healing garden, the hospital, and overall satisfaction with the hospital. Background: There is a significant lack of empirical research that links the emotional and behavioral responses toward healing gardens and the hospitals providing them. Methods: A purposeful sample of 96 visitors to the healing garden in the rooftop atrium of a surgery building in a major hospital in the Southeastern United States completed a survey based on Roger Ulrich’s Theory of Supportive Gardens and the Stimulus, Organism, Response (S-O-R) paradigm. Results: Findings of this study suggest visitors’ experience with the healing garden can lead to overall satisfaction with the hospital and behavioral intentions toward the hospital. Visitors’ satisfaction with the healing garden significantly predicted their satisfaction with the hospital, their intend to revisit the hospital, and their intend to recommend it. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a small healing garden can be a powerful enough space to impact visitors’ overall satisfaction with the hospital and their intentions regarding their future behavior toward the hospital, such as revisiting or recommending the hospital.

Maternity Healthscapes: Conceptualization and Index Development

“…The design of the MHS can have a major effect on women's experience and their families and on the overall perception women have about the quality of care within the MHS (see Table 1)which is in line with recent work on the role of the healthscape on patient experience in various wards (Martin et al, 2021;Ulrich et al, 2020)including maternity wards (e.g., Aburas et al, 2017;Nilsson et al, 2020;Setola et al, 2019). With this article, we have sought to summarize and structure the current discussion of MHS research to conceptualize the MHS concept together with its dimensionality.…”

“…Some maternity research points out to the need for outdoor places to sit and relax, while in our interviews both mothers, midwifes, and senior managers state that this is of less importance due to decreasing length of stay and safety reasons. Therefore, the need for protected outdoor areas that are safe for mothers and their babies were highlighted (see Martin et al, 2021). In addition, mothers highly preferred private ways to enter hospitals and parking spots close to entrances; they described these impacts in stressful situations and the importance of clear, efficient guidelines on how to enter hospitals (Foureur et al, 2011).…”

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Changed Healthcare Design

“…The physical and emotional demands on care providers during the pandemic has shined a mega-spotlight on the need for psychologically supportive healing environments in hospitals (Al-Bqour et al, 2021), respite spaces (Gregory, 2021), views of nature (Mihandoust et al, 2021), and garden areas where staff can retreat for a moment of rest or contemplation (Gola et al, 2021;Iqbal, 2021;Martin et al, 2021;Sachs, 2020).…”

“…More than ever, we have recognized the connection of nature, healing, and recovery for both patients and staff, and several articles were published on this topic (Gola et al, 2021;Iqbal, 2021;Martin et al, 2021;Sachs, 2020). Nurses and other healthcare providers experience tremendous stress in caring for COVID patients and being substitute family and support persons when family members were unable to be present in the last hours of life.…”

Healthy Dwelling: Design of Biophilic Interior Environments Fostering Self-Care Practices for People Living with Migraines, Chronic Pain, and Depression

“…As illustrated in Figure 3 A, creating therapeutic indoor environments is applicable not only to residential homes, but also for hospital rooms, assisted-living facilities and hospital at home (HaH) programs [ 151 ]. While biophilic design has been recognized by healthcare facilities [ 22 , 152 , 153 , 154 , 155 ] and assisted-living housing [ 156 ], there are no reports of applying health-related interior design for HaH care. The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed an interest in home care services [ 157 , 158 ]; therefore, therapeutic interior design for HaH may offer additional clinical benefits.…”