| Title |
A Study Improving a Nurse's Walking Path and Staff Visibility in General Hospital Wards |
| Authors |
Shin, Donghee ; Kang, Miseon |
| DOI |
http://dx.doi.org/10.5659/JAIK_PD.2016.32.1.41 |
| Keywords |
Ward's layouts ; Nurse's care delivering method ; Nurse's walking path ; Visibility from NS |
| Abstract |
The purpose of this study is to suggest ways to improve a staff's working environment, mainly focusing on shortening the walking distance of nurses and enhancing staff visibility to patients from the nurse station (NS). Article reviews were performed on nurses' walking distance and staff visibility. Seven general hospital wards with different characteristics in layouts have been chosen and analyzed, four wards for nurses' walking paths and six wards for staff visibility. Interviews with nurses and drawing reviews were performed to figure out their care delivery method and the relevance it has to the layouts. Furthermore, the quantitative data collected by drawing reviews were compared among wards. The result of this study is as follows. Nurses walked longer distances where nurses' designated rooms were not pertinent to the ward's layout. The standard deviation of nurses' walking distance in a ward differed by the location of the NS and the arrangement of patient room types. Staff visibility was better in the ward that had a double corridor type, centrally located NS and shared rooms near the NS. To sum up, the nursing path and staff visibility from the NS were affected by a combination of the ward's plan, rooms' layouts, corridor type, nurse station type and the operating systems of wards. This study focuses on improving staff and nurses' working environment, which are easily neglected due to patients being the first priority in hospital design. Thus, this work highlights the importance of understanding an operating system, objectives and the priority of wards in planning it. It will help designers and planners to provide better environments for employees. |