Although impressive development in medical science allows human-life extension, anti-aging therapies, new curative means, and new drugs, it is death that no human being can avoid. As death itself is inevitable, we cannot do anything about the way we d...
Although impressive development in medical science allows human-life extension, anti-aging therapies, new curative means, and new drugs, it is death that no human being can avoid. As death itself is inevitable, we cannot do anything about the way we die. No one wants painful death by disease. However, we have no choice but to accept such painful last moments against our will.
However, there is still an area where we can choose something regarding our death. Our choice can give some dignity in the way we die. We can help those who have limited life time to reduce pains and prepare their last moment of time peacefully and with dignity rather than to prolong their lives meaninglessly. Hospice is what helps those preparations.
Hospice program provides a physical, mental, and spiritual care for patients in terminal stage and their family, and it also refers to the facilities offering hospice program. In that sense, as well as physical care of reducing pains and mental care of comforting patients, physical settings should be considered in order to create hospice environment.
However, the present situation is that patients are admitted in the same hospice wards regardless of sex in most large scale hospitals, due to the limited number of wards. For that reason, most patients spend their time with curtains drawn between each bed. They have no choice but to stay in close surroundings all the time. This environment can not be helpful for those hospice patients with physical and mental pain. It can not be healing environment.
The purpose of this article is to suggest the curtain images in hospice wards as an effective way of offering hospice patients healing environment.
The research has been done based on 'SEOUL MEDICAL CENTER', but the results can be applicable to other hospice wards that increase rapidly nowadays. Although a direct survey from the patients - the object of the research - might be desirable in the process of design and production, an indirect survey was employed for protecting the patients.
Main colors were chosen based on the properties of colors and the effect from each color on human beings verified from color psychology, and the atmosphere of wards was chosen based on the in-dept interview with hospice managers.
Although hospice patients want to stay at familiar and comfortable home, the reality is that they are compelled to spend a long time in a small ward with very limited space. For that reason, they gave a preference to the atmosphere of the ward with 'vivid, refreshing, common nature-like image and comfortable, familiar homelike image'. This article suggested six kinds of curtain images, in the sense that curtains are the most familiar and close atmosphere for the patients.
Using the two images that patients prefer as motifs and adding emphasizing colors extracted from each motif, it proposed draft images. Appling the six curtain images to 'SEOUL MEDICAL CENTER', it produced the final image.
It is hoped that this research can be helpful to create a physical and psychological healing space for hospice patients suffering from pains, and furthermore, helpful to develop general medical environment.