Creating Healing Spaces: A Multi-Sensory Patient-Centred Approach to Hospital Design

Victoria is Associate Professor in Modern Medical History at the University of Bristol. She was awarded a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (202-2027) for the project Sensing Spaces of Healthcare: Rethinking the NHS Hospital, which asks how people have experienced hospitals through time, and the legacy of their perceptions in current hospital design.

It will create the first sensory history of hospitals. Harnessing participatory practices, her research is creating a novel multidisciplinary methodology for eliciting memories and sensations of hospitals, which will encourage new ways of thinking and practices among researchers, architects, and designers. Her recent book is Making Noise in the Modern Hospital (2021).

Veronica is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, with a background in architecture design and building science. Her principal area of research focuses on the interplay between building design and performance, visual and thermal comfort and human health and wellbeing.

A 2020 WiSTEM2D (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing, and Design) Johnson & Johnson Scholar, she will share findings from this project exploring how to create healing environments in hospitals through efficient lighting design.

Amanda has over 18 years’ experience as a registered nurse, and holds a joint Associate Professor of Nursing at QUT and Redcliffe Hospital. She was an NHMRC Capacity Building in Dementia Care Research Fellow (2019-21), and has a program of research that optimises care for people experiencing dementia and delirium. She leads multidisciplinary teams to implement evidence-based practice, improve health outcomes, and reduce distress for patients and their care partners.

Therapeutic weighted blankets provide deep touch pressure and mimic the sensation of a hug. Research suggests that deep touch pressure can induce a state of calmness by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system. Weighted blankets have the potential to reduce agitation for people with dementia – reducing use of pharmaceuticals and in-hospital complications. This research examines if the use of weighted blankets is safe, feasible, and efficient for persons with dementia in the acute care setting.