Improving patient wellbeing in the Wilhelmina Children’s hospital through a design concept for the activity room

Abstract

Yearly, roughly 350.000 child hospitalizations take place in the Netherlands and 27% of Dutch children had a chronic disease in 2019, varying from frequently occurring diagnoses like asthma to rare and progressive diseases. However, the life expectancy for children who suffer from a chronic illness continues to increase considerably. This results in a focus on long-term effects of disease and the quality of life for diagnosed children (Van de Putte, E. M., & Van der Ent, C. K., 2019).This project is a collaboration with the Wilhelmina Children’s hospital in Utrecht. In this thesis, the meaning of wellbeing in a pediatric hospital is explored and defined through literature studies and generative sessions with patients, family members and staff in the WKZ. The aim was to implement the insights from the research in a redesign for the activity room in the hospital. The design goal derived from the research outcomes was to give patients of the Wilhelmina Children’s hospital the tools and empowerment to create control over their environment and autonomy over their activities in the hospital, which will be enhanced by stimulation of social involvement among patients within the hospital. Using a participatory approach, patients and former patients of the WKZ were involved in concept development through an idea generation session. Two initial concepts were tested in the WKZ, which led to the establishment of the final concept. The final concept is a spatial design for the activity room focused on the free, independent exploration and play of children. The design gives children the opportunity to control their own playing environment with geometric lightweight blocks or to find a place of their own in cavities in the wall. It stimulates social interaction among children through a semi-transparent playing wall and allows them to express and leave their personal creativity. The results from the final concept test in the WKZ were used to establish a Vision for future designers who work in a similar context. In this vision, the insights from the research and testing sessions of this project are stated as design opportunities with possible solution areas that can improve patient wellbeing in a pediatric hospital.