Reimagining the future of care
Earlier this year, Year 3 students from various Art and Design disciplines came together with Waitemata DHB (WDHB) to reimagine the future of care at WDHB’s new upcoming healthcare facility.
Students drew on creative processes to better understand user needs, challenge thinking about what a healthcare facility might look and feel like, and used design to advocate for the most vulnerable.
The brief drew on WDHB’s core design principles and background research on the ‘ideal ward’. They were interested in what evidence-based and innovative design features for the new wards could look like. The designs also had to include input by community and staff. Some particular issues of focus included noise in wards, visibility of nurses into patient rooms, patient fall prevention as well as exploring the use of new systems and materials.
At the end of the semester, students presented their ideas to WDHB executives.
Research officer Michael Grobelny said that WDHB staff were blown away by the student presentations. He said, “The staff at WDHB were so impressed with the quality of student work that they are going to continue the research and implement some of the student ideas. The biggest impact for the healthcare staff were the revelations brought by the students observations.”
“One particular example came from a nurse with 30-40 years of experience who was recently a patient herself. The nurse had a profound realisation as one group of students described an awkward patient experience in the wardroom; she had previously felt this but had not yet articulated why it felt awkward.”
He said, “The student projects connected with real issues the staff deal with on a daily basis, and presented high quality prototypes of what the patient experience could look like in the future.”
This project is part of the Integrated Studio VI paper hosted by the Good Health Design lab.
Here are some of the student projects:
Patient app by Cihong Song
An app aimed at improving patients’ hospital stay experience by creating a welcoming, safe and empowering environment for patients through their health care journey.
Ward & Patient Lounge by Alyssa Tang, Madeline Maligro, Juvanka Rebello, Serene Aun and Sharon Ng
Ward room – Design aimed to delineate the space and create a sense of home and personal space within a shared environment.
Patient lounge – The group designed an experience that engages patients & families through pockets of space to provide diverse settings for different preferences of privacy, noise, activities & durations.
Elective surgery ward bathroom by Rebecca McLean and Sam How
This project proposes a few potential improvements to the patient bathrooms in the elective surgical ward to create a dignified, safe, functional and accessible space for patients.
Atrium design by Angel Chen and Jim Huang
This project reimagined the atrium as a space that encourages engagement and connection between patients through shared experiences. This beautiful and progressive narrative begins from the moment patients wake up, views the installation in the ward, to finally visiting the balcony and walkway to interact with other patients and the installation.
Idea exhibition by Benny Butcher
An exhibition as a starting point for an open discussion.