Patient room interior

Patient room interior

The aim of this project is to investigate if an intervention in the physical environment in the patient room in an intensive care unit (ICU) will improve the patient’s physical and psychological health, recovery and wellbeing. The intervention is located at the ICU, Southern Älvsborg Hospital (SÄS), Borås and implicate a rebuilt patient room including sound absorbent ceiling and circadian light (experimental room). An identical room has remained intact (control), which makes it possible to compare data from two environments. Data, describing patients’ general health status, will be collected from medical records. Furthermore, data will also be collected from observations- and questionnaires. It is of importance to investigate these elements since today’s knowledge in this area is limited. Many hospital buildings in Sweden are old and many restoration projects are planned during the following years. Therefore the results from this project will be very helpful, both in an ICU context, but also in other health care areas. In the future a person-centred care and a healing environment also will be of utmost importance. Moreover, the intensive care is a very expensive activity and our goal is therefore to investigate if and how the physical environment affects the patient’s lengths of stay, recovery and wellbeing. The project has a person-centred and multidisciplinary approach.