Homeliness in Health Care: The Role of Everyday Designing

Abstract

This article examines how a sense of home can be created in complex clinical healthcare contexts for vulnerable patients. While existing research in this field focuses mainly on patient experience, we take a design anthropological approach to advance the discussion by examining how healthcare staff participate as “everyday designers,” who improvise to create circumstances for homeliness. We draw on ethnographic research undertaken in the Older Persons Unit (OPU) of a Psychiatric Department, before and after the Unit’s move from an older facility to a newly built large regional hospital in Australia. We propose that the ongoing everyday designing of homeliness by hospital staff, in collaboration with patients, is an element of care that contributes significantly to bringing the feeling of “home,” and the sense of comfort associated with it, into a clinical environment.

Keywords:

• home
• homeliness
• healthcare environments
• design anthropology
• everyday designing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to the hospital staff, who participated in our research, and to Bendigo Health and Exemplar Health for their collaboration.

FUNDING

The research discussed in this article was undertaken through a partnership between the Exemplar Health, Bendigo Health, and RMIT University and research was funded by Exemplar Health.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melisa Duque

MELISA DUQUE IS A RESEARCH FELLOW OF THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH LAB, AND A FULL-TIME MEMBER BASED AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN MADA. AS A DESIGN RESEARCHER, HER WORK SITS AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN ANTHROPOLOGY, PARTICIPATORY DESIGN AND EVERYDAY DESIGN. [email protected]

Sarah Pink

SARAH PINK IS PROFESSOR OF DESIGN AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND DIRECTOR OF THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH LAB AT MONASH UNIVERSITY. HER WORK IS INTERDISCIPLINARY, AND BRINGS TOGETHER ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP AND APPLIED PRACTICE TO CREATE NEW MODES OF RESEARCHING AND INTERVENING IN THE WORLD TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE AND ETHICAL FUTURES. [email protected]

Shanti Sumartojo

SHANTI SUMARTOJO IS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF DESIGN RESEARCH AT MONASH ART, DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE AND A MEMBER OF THE EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH LAB AT MONASH UNIVERSITY. HER RECENT BOOKS INCLUDE ATMOSPHERES AND THE EXPERIENTIAL WORLD: THEORY AND METHODS (WITH SARAH PINK)[email protected]

Laurene Vaughan

PROFESSOR LAURENE VAUGHAN IS DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF DESIGN AT RMIT UNIVERSITY. SHE IS A PRACTICING ARTIST, DESIGNER AND EDUCATOR, WHO THROUGH HER RESEARCH EXPLORES AND PRESENT COMMENT ON THE INTERACTIVE AND SITUATED NATURE OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE. [email protected]