Introduction
People treated in facilities where the setting is conducive to strong communication tend to give higher scores in patient satisfaction surveys. By focusing on the communication that occurs between providers and patients in a healthcare space, design can be used to facilitate and enhance meaningful interaction.
The Communication Toolbox Contains:
Issue Brief and Executive Summmary
"Nurse-Patient Communication: Let's Talk About It...," in this issue brief you will learn about elements of the built environment that improve nurse-patient communication, design interventions that could improve nurse-patient communication as found in the literature and how to ask better questions surrounding this critical relationship during your next project.
Four Video and Written Interviews
- "How Evidence-Based Design Can Support Communication to Ensure Patient Safety," a written interview with Jaynelle F. Stichler, DNS, RN, EDAC, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN, explores how communication plays a vital role in nurses’ daily responsibilities, which evidence-based design features support effective communication efforts and why improving communication can lead to best outcomes and impact a facility’s bottom line.
- "Design is a Social Art , Collaboration is Key," a video interview with David Kamp, FASLA, LF, NA
- "Building Environments and Experiences That Build Patient Trust," a written interview with Jake Poore, learn about holistic, cultural solutions to the challenges of the mandated move in healthcare from volume to value, the key to successful cultural transformations and the ways a healthcare organization can understand the patient experience to be successful.
- "The Role of Design in Fostering Effective Communication," a written interview with Beverley H. Johnson, learn about the barriers to good patient and provider communication, the ways designers and architects can improve patient and provider communication and the importance of involving patients in the design process.
Three Project Brief
- "Integrated Team Care In a Clinic Designed to Promote Collaboration and Communication," learn about how the architecture firm's observations informed design solutions for the new clinic, about design methods to improve staff collaboration and maintain patient privacy, and about spaces that allowed caregivers to begin exams immediately after patients arrived.
- "Palomar Health Communicates Its Commitment to Patients Through “Hospital of the Future,” learn about how Palomar Health facilitated an improvement in patient-provider and staff communication, about the multiple benefits of the organization's new decentralized nursing stations, and how the newly designed healing environment contributed to patient comfort and satisfaction.
- "A Nonprofit Healthcare System Revamps Operations and Care for Underserved Communities," learn about sustainable healthcare and what it means to Adelante, the organization's method to evaluate design and operational needs for their new flagship facility, and specific strategies implemented to improve patient and provider communication.
Design Tool
- "Ideas to Improve Nurse-Patient Communication," this tool provides healthcare designers and professionals with ideas on how to improve nurse-patient communication through facility design.
Three Blogs
Related Resources
- Communication Resources, is a list of resources made of up of articles, books, policies, organizations, and more, related to communication. Use this list to learn more about this topic.
Lessons Learned
- Lessons learned about Communication, the following are compiled from research literature, case studies, interviews, and other materials to provide an overview on the topic of communication.
Design Strategies
- Design Strategies — Nurse-Patient Communication,
Click here to view all Communication Toolbox resources
* Want to learn how to become an Affiliate+ member? Contact Lynn Kenney, lkenney@healthdesign.org