The potential of the patient room to promote healing and well-being in patients and nurses: an integrative review of the research

Abstract

The purpose of this integrative review is to synthesize the existing research on the patient room in the acute care hospital as it pertains to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of healing and well-being for patients. This review will describe 22 years of research in nursing, medicine, architecture, psychiatry, and environmental psychology that assesses the effectiveness of design features in the patient room used to promote healing. Research studies reviewed also include those that address the well-being in the nursing staff. Using strategies of integrative research review, 18 studies were reviewed.