The Impact Wayfinding Can Have On Wellbeing

A visit to the hospital or any other healthcare environment can be a stressful experience, for both the patient and the visitor.

Hospitals can be large and complex places, where people often feel intimidated, nervous, or anxious. Generally, anyone visiting a hospital will already be going through a challenging time, physically, emotionally, or both. The last thing they need is to become overwhelmed when they’re trying to work out where they need to be.

A study by Shumaker and Reizenstein (1982), found that wayfinding problems can lead to confusion, frustration, anger, stress, elevated blood pressure, headaches, and fatigue. So, ensuring that patients and their visitors can easily find their way around a hospital is crucial to their wellbeing.

What Is Wayfinding?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, wayfinding is the ‘process or activity of ascertaining one’s position and planning and following a route’. Wayfinding is about connecting people with places by identifying gateways, routes, and destinations, linked by well-structured pathways, and clearly marked routes.

Comprehensive wayfinding strategies in healthcare environments can include colour coding different floors, or departments, providing colour-schemed paths on the floor, arrows, clear signs and maps, digital displays, and other wireless technologies.

Creating A Space Where People Want To Be

When anyone goes into a place they don’t know, there can be real anxiety about finding their destination, which can exacerbate that feeling of not wanting to be there in the first place. Creating environments where people want to be, involves a combination of many elements, including light, temperature, and colour. When these all align it helps people to feel comfortable.

Good wayfinding, including sensitive lighting, carefully chosen colours and even acoustical modifications, can positively affect the psychological experience of patients and their families.

Research has shown that environmental factors in a healthcare setting can have critical benefits to long-term patient outcomes. Reducing patient stress and confusion through effective wayfinding can play an important factor in both visitor experience and patient wellbeing.

These are just some of the benefits:

• Supports confused patients

Most people visiting hospital are already distracted when they arrive, worrying about their appointment, upcoming tests, or surgery.

Clear Wayfinding will assist them as they find their way around the healthcare environment, helping reduce their stress levels as they get to where they’re going, faster and easier.

• Alleviates stress for worried relatives

Visiting a loved-one in hospital can be emotionally stressful. Clear wayfinding will help alleviate that stress by ensuring they can easily find their relative or friend, providing a positive experience.

• Improves patient satisfaction

First impressions count and so, if a patient is welcomed to the hospital by clear wayfinding, they’ll get to their appointment on time, enabling healthcare providers to quickly serve them. This ultimately helps create a warm and engaging atmosphere for visitors, patients, doctors, and all healthcare staff.

Carefully thought-out, clear wayfinding enhances the experience of anyone visiting a healthcare setting. From increasing patient satisfaction to decreasing their stress levels, and those of their visitors, the positive impact of wayfinding on wellbeing is far reaching.

To find out more about how Sky Inside UK can help enhance wayfinding in your healthcare setting, visit www.skyinsideuk.com, call 01173 183919 or email allan@skyinsideuk.com