3 Areas of Social Need

Hospital Experience

One area that I am extremely interested in is the area of the hospital experience. This includes both the experience of patients as well as hospital staff and families. One serious issue faced by hospitals is that of error prevention, both in the area of record keeping, and in actual medical care. Quite often it is the physical environment that contributes to errors committed by caregivers. For example, the location of the nurse’s station on the floor of a hospital can either facilitate or discourage communication between patients and nurses. Design of systems and procedures can also have a major impact on how smoothly processes run. For patients, creating a healing environment is essential to speeding recovery. Design elements such as exposure to nature, or the arrangement of furniture in a waiting room, have been shown to have significant impacts on rate of recovery and feelings of safety and security.
When people are in a hospital, they are at their most vulnerable. On the patient side, they are putting their lives in the hands of others and trying to return to normal life. On the caregiver side, they are placed in high-stress situations, having to juggle the needs of patients, families, and coworkers, in addition to having to perform highly complex procedures. I believe that there are countless opportunities in the area of environmental, product, and systems design, to improve the experience of those in hospitals and, while it may be beyond the scope of this project, it is something I am interested in pursuing in the future.

Prison Systems

My limited knowledge of the prison system comes mostly from what I have seen on television. However, I believe there is enormous potential for design to influence behavior and improve the overall environment in prisons. Perhaps one of the most destructive elements of the prison system is the gang or race – oriented prison culture, and I believe it would be a fascinating challenge to attempt to address this issue through the redesign of prison spaces, or through the design of programs that are meant to occupy and inspire inmates. I think that being locked up and isolated from society is punishment enough, and I believe that improving the physical environment in prisons could improve the mood of inmates, and may have positive influences on their behavior and future outlook.

The Elderly

As an undergrad I did a project for a retirement community that made me aware of many issues that elderly communities face. The challenge of creating a safe environment that balances the need for privacy and social interaction, and the needs of people of varying physical and mental abilities, is quite an interesting one. I believe that one of the main problems with elder care facilities is that residents become completely isolated from the outside community. I met an older woman in Providence who had lost so much touch with the outside world that she didn’t even know what city she lived in anymore. Being able to empower the elderly and restore their quality of life through the design of programs and/or facilities would be extremely rewarding.