NIMA IN UPPSALA A neurosurgery unit for postoperative- and intermediate care

Abstract

Akademiska sjukhuset in Uppsala serves all patients in the middle part of Sweden which includes almost 1,9 million people. Today, the hospital has challenges to develop the site which is tightly built with few possibilities for expansion and development. At the same time, the buildings are older and need to be updated according to today’s standards of highly specialized healthcare facilities. This master thesis will further investigate this challenge in a collaboration with a neurosurgery unit for patients who need intermediate or post-operative care (NIMA) at Akademiska sjukhuset. The unit has challenges with the facility where the care rooms are shared between three to six patients which cause both stress and challenges with privacy and recovery. NIMA also has challenges with hiring enough staff who wants to work there. Many employees attests that they suffer from stress and anxiety due to bad working environments, high workload, and many patients. Additionally, the patients at the unit are especially vulnerable to their environment as they suffer from injuries, diseases or have been in surgery for reasons related to their brain, spinal cord, or Keywords: Healthcare, Design, Architecture, Clinical environments, Hospital peripheral nervous system. The patients are also in need of constant observation by staff which add extra requirements on the work conditions and environment. Research shows that through design and access to outdoor environment, it is possible to support the health and facilitate recovery for both staff and patients in hospitals. By combining studies from research within the healthcare field, architectural knowledge and research, interviews with staff and observations at the unit, this thesis developed and present three scenarios with different scope. The scenarios are designed to facilitate staff’s work, improve the environment for patients and better support visitors to patients treated within the unit. In a long term, this can contribute to an increase of recovery, health and wellbeing. The main aim has been to develop an inspiring document with solutions the unit can use as a basis and starting point in a further discussion of an actual project to redesign the facility. This is also relevant in the ongoing discussion of how to develop Akademiska sjukhuset in the long-term perspective.