Sensing spaces of healthcare: A creative study. Version 1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Sensing spaces of healthcare: Rethinking the NHS hospital. A Creative Study

• IRAS ID

  285904

• Contact name

  Victoria Bates

• Contact email

  victoria.bates@bristol.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Bristol

• Duration of Study in the UK

  2 years, 6 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  ‘Sensing Spaces of Healthcare: Rethinking the NHS hospital’ will explore the sensory past, present and future of NHS hospitals in England. The project is ran in collaboration with GOSH Arts, Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), London, and Fresh Arts, North Bristol Trust (NBT), Southmead Hospital, Bristol.

  Design is a pressing issue in healthcare. Poor hospital design impacts staff, patients and visitors, and critiques of hospitals are increasingly widespread. Such critiques often claim that we have lost 'holistic' design in healthcare and refer to historical examples to make their case, but draw repeatedly on the same few examples (Nightingale wards, sanatoria) and focus on their visual features (colour, light). This project offers a new way of approaching hospital environments, for the benefit of hospital historians, designers and users. It focuses on more recent - and under-studied - hospitals of the National Health Service. It rethinks healthcare environments through the body and the senses, focusing on how places feel rather than how they look.

  The project consists of two strands of study (1) CREATIVE STUDY and (2) HISTORICAL STUDY. They intersect in their focus, aims and research methods.

  The project's aims are:
  •To identify the most important ‘sensory problems’ in specific hospitals
  •To develop relevant guidance for architects and arts/health practitioners relating to these problems and develop prototypes responding to sensory problems/challenges in hospitals
  •To develop a methodological toolkit, including participatory practices, for eliciting sensory experiences and memories

  The CREATIVE STUDY detailed in this IRAS application involves working with current NHS staff, patients and visitors to explore their sensory experiences of hospitals using a range of creative research methods. The HISTORICAL STUDY informed by the CREATIVE STUDY detailed here will be prepared in 2022. A separate application for ethics and HRA approval will be sought at the time.

• REC name

  London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  21/LO/0045

• Date of REC Opinion

  16 Feb 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion