healing environments in radiotherapy - Agnes van den Berg

Healing Environments in Radiotherapy Project Report
Artworks can be expensive, which can make it difficult for hospitals that have to operate on a budget
to implement many efforts to create a pleasant environment through decorations. UMC Groningen
has found an innovative solution by offering their staff the opportunity to display their own artwork
in the hospital. Furthermore, the hospital works with local artists to design decorations, and
collaborates with art schools in making the hospital environment more pleasing. For instance, the
elevators were all designed by students of an art school in Groningen. This strategy allows the
hospital to display a great variety of artworks, one of which is shown in figure 26.
© KuiperCompagnions
Figure 25: Sculpture at UMC Groningen
Importantly, artworks are not only provided because they look nice, but because they offer
distraction, which can be very helpful for seriously ill people who are dealing with a lot of anxiety. To
aid this distractive effect, artworks displayed at Parrish Medical Center are arranged like in a gallery,
so that patients are invited to stroll around to look at the artworks.
In terms of offering other distractions, Martini Ziekenhuis Groningen also provides a large screen on
which patients can watch sports events. Furthermore, every bed in the hospital has its own Personal
Service Unit. This is a screen above the patients’ bed which has several applications. The patient can
use it to listen to the radio, watch TV, go on the internet, use the telephone, and search for hospital
information. Such extra ‘distractive’ services also enable the patient to keep in touch with the
outside world through TV, internet and being able to talk to others (F. de Vos, De Vos
Omgevingspsychologie).
Providing distractions is also very important in radiotherapy treatment rooms, since patients have to
lie still while being alone in a room with a big machine, which can feel threatening and produce
anxiety. At the control hospital, this problem is addressed by decorating the ceilings of treatment
rooms with a screen with many small holes, through which tiny shining lights simulate a starry sky
(figure 28). Another method is to provide posters on the ceiling, or to provide other visual
distractions, such as light diffuser panels or virtual skylights (figure 29) (see for example
www.theskyfactory.com or http://www.stratusdesigns.net/).
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