everyone benefits from thoughtful design of nurses' working environment

1. EVERYONE BENEFITS FROM
Nursing Focused Design
Farrow Partnership Architects Inc.
www.farrowpartnership.com

2. Howʼs your health lately?

3. Howʼs your health lately?
Feeling fine?

4. Howʼs your health lately?
Feeling fine?
Thatʼs good,
because if you get sick...

5. THERE ARE
NOT ENOUGH
NURSES

6. WHY not enough nurses?
INCREASINGLY COMPLEX DEMANDS
COPING with EXTREME STRESS
VERBAL ABUSE
PHYSICAL ABUSE
INJURIES
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
STEREOTYPES of the PROFESSION

7. What can be done?
INCREASINGLY COMPLEX DEMANDS
COPING with EXTREME STRESS
VERBAL ABUSE
PHYSICAL ABUSE
INJURIES
PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
STEREOTYPES of the PROFESSION

8. cold, corporate and generic
deprived of positive distractions
remote from nature
dull and depressing
no place to relax
What are the INGREDIENTS of a
stressful environment?

9. raises blood pressure
saps energy
lowers commitment
increases potential for mistakes
encourages early retirement
What is the IMPACT of a
stressful environment?

10. © Farrow Partnership Architects / Credit Valley Hospital / photo: Peter Seller
How can DESIGN
reduce STRESS?
physically?
emotionally?

11. minimize walking distances
protect personal safety
Kensington Eye Clinic photo: Tom Arban
© Farrow Partnership Architects / Bishop Strahan School/ /photo: Shai Gil
DESIGN CAN REDUCE
PHYSICAL STRESS
ergonomic workstations
built-in patient lift devices
non-toxic materials

12. © Salter Farrow Pilon Architects Inc., of which Farrow Partnership Architects is a successor firm / Thunder Bay Regional
views to nature
natural materials and themes
spaces for social interaction
DESIGN CAN REDUCE
EMOTIONAL STRESS
Health Sciences Centre/ photo: Peter Sellar
dedicated off-stage spaces
places for art and music
uplifting and inspiring aesthetic

13. © Farrow Partnership Architects / Credit Valley Hospital / photo: Peter Seller
capacity
morale and
best work.
to their
nurses’
Design can affect
well-being,

14. Nurses make
all the
difference.
© Farrow Partnership Architects / Wellesley Central Place/ photo: Tom Arban
We depend on
them when
we’re in
a vulnerable
state.

15. “When Ms Nightingale began
nursing in 1851, hospitals were
squalid places with horrid
working conditions…

16. “…in relative terms,
today’s health care institutions
are not much better, and the
work environment of nurses
continues to be
disgracefully bad”
Andre Picard
The Globe and Mail

17. Nurses deserve
a working
environment
© Farrow Partnership Architects / Credit Valley Hospital / photo: Shai Gil
that is
energizing,
life-affirming,
and
professional.

18. We cannot address every issue that weighs on the nursing
profession, but we can create places of comfort and inspiration.
Farrow Partnership Architects Inc.
www.farrowpartnership.com