Version 1
: Received: 4 September 2023 / Approved: 5 September 2023 / Online: 6 September 2023 (02:32:27 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 24 September 2023 / Approved: 25 September 2023 / Online: 25 September 2023 (07:05:33 CEST)
Tekbiyik Tekin, B.; Dincyurek, O. Exploring the Use of the AEDET Hospital Evaluation Toolkit to Create a Better Healing Environment for Cancer Patients beyond the Global North. Buildings2023, 13, 2588.
Tekbiyik Tekin, B.; Dincyurek, O. Exploring the Use of the AEDET Hospital Evaluation Toolkit to Create a Better Healing Environment for Cancer Patients beyond the Global North. Buildings 2023, 13, 2588.
Tekbiyik Tekin, B.; Dincyurek, O. Exploring the Use of the AEDET Hospital Evaluation Toolkit to Create a Better Healing Environment for Cancer Patients beyond the Global North. Buildings2023, 13, 2588.
Tekbiyik Tekin, B.; Dincyurek, O. Exploring the Use of the AEDET Hospital Evaluation Toolkit to Create a Better Healing Environment for Cancer Patients beyond the Global North. Buildings 2023, 13, 2588.
Abstract
Today, numerous studies have shown that the physical environment in hospitals can significantly influence patients' well-being, comfort, and recovery. However, this is currently neglected in hospitals in the Global South. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the awareness to make it more applicable worldwide. Thus, this study focuses on improving the healing environment standards, by exploring the impact of evidence-based design and patient-centred care in hospitals for cancer patients; particularly the architectural space quality, on patient health outcomes as well as hospital staff health and wellbeing. In Global North countries, such as the UK, the Achieving Excellence Design Evaluation Toolkit (AEDET), is used by its National Health Services, to assess the effectiveness of various environmental attributes. However, these toolkits have not been designed for and do not work well within Global South countries, such as Northern Cyprus. To examine and compare the effectiveness of different physical environmental attributes and to evaluate user responses, the Post-Occupancy Evaluation Method and the AEDET toolkit have been used in the study. These were applied to both public and private hospitals in Northern Cyprus, involving cancer patients, staff, and professionals (n=220). The findings reveal the strength and weaknesses in terms of environmental comfort based on the aspects of evidence-based design of the hospitals such as natural light, air quality, noise, view, infection control, etc., to create a more optimal physical environment for better psychological outcomes. This is the first study to propose an adaptation of the AEDET toolkit to assist architects in designing healthcare facilities that are responsive to the requirements of hospital patients and staff; and to promote the quality of healing environment for improved health and well-being outcomes.
Keywords
hospitals; Environmental design; environmental comfort; healing environment; patient-centred care; evidence-based design; architectural space quality; health and wellbeing outcomes
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Architecture
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
