Literature Review - HSC Home - University of the West of England

Passini etal. (1998)Schofield(2003)Lawsonet al.(2003)residents in total) in a maximumsecurity prison in the UK.Controlled study in a hospital ofthe impact of architectural designon wayfinding in 14 patients withdementia compared with 28controls.Mixed methods study, includingRCT and semi-structuredinterviews, to investigate the useof the Snoezelen multi-sensoryenvironment in 26 palliative daycare patients.Non-experimental cross sectionalcomparison study of 215 patientsin old and new facilities twohospitals. Data includesquestionnaire and focus groups.No further information onsampling.Intervention controls matchedfor age, sex and education.No further information aboutsubject selection. Needsfurther discussion of observerrole.RCT is a pilot study,knowingly underpowered.Experimental and controlgroups were nothomogenous. Thematiccontent analysis of thequalitative data reported.Exact matching not possiblebut care was taken to assessthe comparability of thesamples.Arrangement of furniture into group formation mayencourage interaction and reduce hostility in theenvironment in secure settings.Dementia patients were incapable of planning andmaking decisions involving memory to solve awayfinding task. DAT patients were better able tomake decisions based on architectural information.Patients performed poorly when forced to extractrelevant information from graphic displays.Landmarks can promote wayfinding. Good spatialorganisation is important for DAT patients, forwhom unnecessary signage is confusing.Significant reduction in anxiety in experimentalgroup. Snoezelen is worthy of further investigation.Four main themes emerged from the semistructuredinterviews: calm; sleep; continued effectand environment.Patients are aware of quality of the environment.Patients in newer buildings expressed moresatisfaction with the environment, staff and theirtreatment than those in older ones. Clinicaloutcomes including length of stay and requests forpain killing medication affected by the environment.Patients preferred natural lighting and a view froma window. Lack of control exercised by patientswas a feature of both environments.72