Journal article
Sustainable Health and Well-Being: Guidelines for Integrating Therapeutic Gardens for Holistic Hospital Care
Sustainability, Vol.16(23), pp.1-18
2024
Abstract
Therapeutic hospital gardens (THGs) need to be purposefully designed for hospital users and well-integrated into the clinical hospital treatment plan to be effective. Healthcare decision-makers are critically important in establishing therapeutic gardens in hospitals and healthcare facilities because they have the ultimate decision-making power to include such gardens for the holistic care of their patients, staff, and visitors. This study aims to establish how THGs can be successfully created by investigating the professional experiences of 12 global healthcare decision-makers in hospital administration, executive government, and senior consultancy to government on the role of THGs in creating a healthy and sustainable hospital environment. This article shows how these decision-makers, who have already worked with healthcare designers and clinical practitioners to design and establish THGs, have been selected and interviewed. The qualitative analysis of these semi-structured interviews uncovered why and how these healthcare decision-makers made THGs a reality in their hospitals. This analysis informed the development of the THG Healthcare Decision-maker Guidelines, which were designed to guide all hospital CEOs, government executives, and senior consultants to the government to both design and then establish THGs successfully. These guidelines include five systematic steps: 1. design for hospital cohorts; 2. purposefully design and integrate THGs well; 3. facilitate inclusive and defined stakeholder engagement; 4. evaluate the garden visitor experience; and 5. understand the benefits and values of THGs. These five systematic steps can be used immediately by healthcare decision-makers to work with healthcare designers and clinical experts to implement such gardens in hospitals successfully. When the three sectors, healthcare governance, healthcare design, and clinical health, work together, more THGs can be established in hospitals for better patient care, visitor well-being, and a healthy and sustainable hospital environment.
Details
- Title
- Sustainable Health and Well-Being: Guidelines for Integrating Therapeutic Gardens for Holistic Hospital Care
- Authors
- Katharina Nieberler-Walker (Corresponding Author) - Griffith UniversityCheryl Desha - Griffith UniversityAnne Roiko - Griffith UniversitySavindi Caldera - University of the Sunshine CoastCaryl Bosman - Griffith University
- Publication details
- Sustainability, Vol.16(23), pp.1-18
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.3390/su162310288
- ISSN
- 2071-1050
- Copyright note
- © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Data Availability
- Data are contained within the article.
- Grant note
- The first author was supported in undertaking this research project through a PhD scholarship from Griffith University throughout the study and write-up period. The first author is the recipient of the 2022 Design for Health Scholarship, awarded by the Australian Health Design Council to support her research over the next three years.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991085398902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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