This is a paper about the social services waiting rooms. Our aim with the study has been to: ”Describe and problematize the physical environment in social services waiting rooms. A wider purpose is to lift the question about the waiting room as a significant part of peoples encounter with the social services.”  To be able to achieve this purpose, we have used two questions: What does the physical waiting room environment look like in social services in Stockholms län? How can we understand and problematize the physical environment factors impact on people who visits these environments?  We have observed and photographed ten waiting rooms in ten different social services in Stockholms län. In the paper we describe what the environments look like, with text and whit pictures. Then we have analysed the results from four different theoretical perspectives. These four perspectives are: nursing theory, environmental psychology, power theory and theories about material. Our conclusions is that the environment in the different waiting rooms shift a lot, but the thing the most of them have in common is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of thought behind the design and configuration of the waiting room. Half of them don’t have windows and the environment is generally stripped. All of the waiting rooms have receptions covered all up with glass, with slots that the receptionist opens when someone comes up to the reception. Most of the waiting rooms also have walls and doors of glass facing the corridors where the visit rooms and the social workers offices are located. These are covered so that you cannot see in to the corridors. There is also a lack of a children’s perspective in the environments. We mean that the poorly designed waiting rooms, with all the security built in to them, create and maintain the unequal relations between the social worker and the client, where the client is constructed as the ’the other’ and the dangerous.

Den här studien är ett examensarbete inom informationsdesign med inriktning rumslig gestaltning. Arbetet omfattar tio veckor av studier som har resulterat i en rapport samt ett gestaltningsförslag. Fokus i studien har varit på att undersöka vilka funktioner som bör tydliggöras i väntrummet på ungdomshälsan i Uppsala. Efter litteraturstudier och insamling av empirisk data har ett designförslag tagits fram. I designförslaget har väntrumsytan utökats. En ny planlösnings syftar till att skapa förutsättningar för både integritet och öppenhet. Ett färgkoncept i väntrummet bidrar till att ungdomarna lättare kan orientera sig samtidigt som informationen om yrkesgrupperna, på ungdomshälsan, synliggjorts. / This study is a thesis in information design, focusing on spatial design. The thesis includes ten weeks of study, which has resulted in a report and a design proposal. The aim of the thesis has been to study the functions that need to be clearer in the waiting room in the adolescence healthcare center in Uppsala. The design proposal is based on literature studies and the collection of empirical data. In the design proposal the waiting room area in the adolescence healthcare center has been made larger, with a new spatial plan that aims to create opportunities for both privacy and openness. A colour concept makes it both easier for the young people to orientate in the waiting room as well as enhancing visual information about the available professions.

Background: Family members often accompany patients to the emergency department and play an important role in caring for the patient. Communication between nurses and family members has long been identified as a priority of care and an area needing improvement due to the increasingly busy nature of the emergency department. Good communication can improve patient outcomes, satisfaction with care and decrease patient and family anxiety. Objective: To determine and describe what interventions exist to improve nurse-family communication during the waiting period of an emergency department visit. Methods: A scoping review was completed following the Joanna Briggs Institution methodology: (1) identify the research question, (2) define the inclusion criteria, (3) use a search strategy to identify relevant studies using a three-step approach, (4) select studies using a team approach, (5) data extraction, (6) data analysis, and (7) presentation of results. Results: The search yielded 1,771 articles of which 20 were included in the review. An additional 7 articles were found in the grey literature search. Results were analyzed using basic content analysis, reported using tables, figures, descriptive statistics and narrative synthesis and organized based on Peplau's Theory of Interpersonal Relations. A variety of pediatric and adult interventions were found targeting staff members and family members and took place worldwide. Two models were developed based on the results of this review: a communication model for triage nurses and one for all emergency department nurses. Conclusion: Communication plays an essential role in emergency department nursing care. Communication skills training should be built into nursing curriculum, nursing orientation, triage training, and continuing education. Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions using a standardized scale, understanding the specific needs of family members and effectively teaching communication skills to emergency department nurses.

“Waiting room dilemmas- an ethnographical study of interactions and dilemmas in social welfare waiting rooms”  The social services activity is a balance between service and control. Uniting these parts is a challenge, and this study’s main intention is about how various social offices relates to this in their work with peoples waiting room experiences. The purpose of the study is by observations and interviews, to investigate what exists in a place like a public authority waiting room. Questions like what kind of interactions will take place and which dilemmas might occur are asked. The result shows that different approaches in how social workers do call clients up occur, the accessibility or lack of accessibility to computers, telephone and copying machine, clarifies the power imbalance that exists in governmental work. The result also shows that some waiting room interactions may be experienced as enforced and that the social services law is hard to maintain. / Socialtjänstens verksamhet balanserar på en våg där den ena vågskålen innehåller service och den andra innehåller kontroll. Att förena dessa delar är en utmaning och denna studie intresserar sig för hur olika socialkontor förhåller sig till denna balansgång i deras arbete med besökares väntrumsupplevelse. Studien har syftat till att genom observationer och intervjuer, undersöka vad som gestaltas i socialtjänstens väntrum, vilka interaktioner som synliggörs samt hur eventuella dilemman framträder. Resultatet visar på att olika tillvägagångssätt för att ropa upp klienter till besök förekommer och att tillgängligheten till eller avsaknaden av lånedatorer, kopiator och telefon tydliggör den maktobalans som råder inom myndighetsutövning. Resultatet visar även på att vissa interaktioner i väntrummet kan upplevas som tvingande och att innehållet i socialtjänstlagens portalparagraf många gånger blir svår att leva upp till.

This practicum project investigates current emergency department waiting room models and explores how the psychology of waiting can be applied to positively influence the waiting experience. This culmination of research, coupled with concepts of evidence-based design (EBD), precedent research and regional site visits result in an understanding of emergency department waiting that challenges current emergency department design. This knowledge led to the formulation of a theoretical framework and hypothetical design proposal that aims to uncover, identify, and integrate design concepts known to influence emergency department waiting environment satisfaction. / February 2017

Det här är ett examensarbete i Informationsdesign med inriktning mot Rumslig gestaltning. Jag har gjort en studie kring hur man med hjälp av rumsliga element kan bidra till att öka orienterbarheten mot ett mål i ett väntrum. Arbetet har skett i väntrummet på Klinisk Fysiologiavdelningen på Mälarsjukhuset i Eskilstuna. Efter tidiga observationer i väntrummet kunde det ses att patienter och besökare inte förstod att de skulle orientera sig till den in-checkningsterminal som finns i väntrummet. Denna observation ledde till att jag valde att göra min studie just där. Syftet med arbetet har varit att genom studier ta reda på hur man kan öka orienterbarheten mot ett mål i väntrummet på Klinisk Fysiologiavdelningen. Slutresultatet har kommit ur den empirisk data som metoderna resulterat i och litteraturstudierna. De metoder som använts är observationer, kvalitativa intervjuer och rumsanalys. Resultatet av studierna har lett fram till ett designförslag i 3D-programmet Sketch-Up. Förslaget gestaltar hur väntrummet skulle kunna förändras för att öka orienterbarheten. / This is a thesis in Information Design with focus on spatial design. I have done a study about how spatial elements in a room can facilitate the orientation towards a landmark in a waiting room. The work has been done in the waiting room of Clinical Physiology department at Mälarsjukhuset in Eskilstuna. After early observations in the waiting room I could see that patients and visitors didn’t understand that they would orient themselves to the check-in terminal in the waiting room. That observation led me to do the thesis in that room. The aim of the work has been to find out how you can facilitate orientation toward a landmark in the waiting room of Clinical Physiology Department. The end result has emerged from the empirical data of the methods and literature studies. The methods used in the study were observations, interviews and a room analysis. The results of the studies has led to a design proposal in 3D software Sketch-Up. The proposal shows how the waiting room could be changed to increase orientation.

Bakgrund: Röntgensjuksköterskan undersöker och behandlar patienter medvarierande grad av symtom och diagnos varje dag. Dessa patienter upplever ofta orooch stress, miljön de vistas i innan undersökningen påverkar patienten både fysisktoch psykiskt Syfte: Syftet med studien är att kartlägga väntrummets påverkan på patienter Metod: En litteraturstudie med resultat från åtta kvantitativa studier. Artiklarnakvalitetsgranskades med en mall av Olsson & Sörensens och analyserades i enighetmed Febe Fribergs analysmodell för kvantitativ litteraturstudie. Sökningar utfördes idatabaserna PubMed och CINAHL Resultat: Resultatet delades in i sex underrubriker som uppvisar positiva effekter avolika interventioner i väntrummet, hjälpt av vitalparametrar, HAD depressionsskala,STAI-6 ångestskala med flera. Konklusion: Flera förändringar visade sig effektiva i att reducera patientens ångestoch depression samt normalisera vitala parametrar. Det är viktigt med vidareforskning inom radiologiavdelningarnas miljöer för att utvärdera dess inverkan påpatienterna.

Målet med detta examensarbete har varit att studera Migrationsverkets väntrum vid Asylprövningsenheten i Flen och hur det används. Detta för att identifiera rummets brister och förbättringsmöjligheter. Syftet har vidare varit att ta fram ett gestaltningsförslag som skapar en tydligare identitet för rummet och som bidrar till en starkare länk mellan besökare och myndighet. Genom metoder, såsom observationer, platsanalys, notationer, intervjuer samt omvärldsanalys, har en ökad förståelse för väntrummet skapats och det har konstaterats att det finns en brist vad gäller rummets igenkänning och identitet. Med hjälp av litteratur och resultatet från metoderna har ett gestaltningsförslag sedan utvecklats. Detta förslag har en tydlig igenkänning vad gäller Migrationsverkets grafiska profil. Ytorna utnyttjas på ett effektivare vis än tidigare och fler funktioner finns nu i rummet. Examensarbetet är för avläggande i filosofie kandidatexamen i Informationsdesign med inriktning mot Rumslig gestaltning. / The aim of this thesis was to study the Swedish Migration Board’s waiting room at the Asylum Examination Unit in Flen and how it is used, in order to identify the room’s deficiencies and opportunities for improvement. The aim has also been to develop a design proposal that create a distinct identity for the room and that contribute to a stronger link between visitors and authority. A greater understanding of the waiting room has been created through methods such as observations, site analysis, notations, interviews and environmental analysis, and it has been observed that there is a lack in terms of the room’s recognition and identity. A design proposal has been developed with the help of literature and results from methods. This proposal is a clear recognition in terms of the Swedish Migration Board’s graphical profile. The area is used in a more effective manner and more features are now available in the room than before. The thesis work is for the Degree of Bachelor in Information Design, specializing in Spatial design.

abstract: "Too often, people in pain are stuck in limbo. With no diagnosis there is no prognosis. They feel that without knowing what is wrong, there is no way to make it right" (Lewandowski, 2006, p. ix). Research has shown that environmental factors, such as views of nature, positive distractions and natural light can reduce anxiety and pain (Ulrich, 1984). Patients with chronic, painful diseases are often worried, anxious and tired. Doctor's appointments for those with a chronic pain diagnosis can be devastating (Gilron, Peter, Watson, Cahill, & Moulin, 2006). The research question explored in this study is: Does the layout, seating and elements of positive distraction in the pain center waiting room relate to the patients experience of pain and distress? This study utilized a mixed-method approach. A purposive sample of 39 individuals participated in the study. The study employed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Lewandowski Pain Scale (LPS) and a researcher developed Spatial Perception Instrument (SPI) rating the appearance and comfort of a pain center waiting room in a large metropolitan area. Results indicated that there were no significant correlations between pain, distress and the waiting room environment. It is intended that this study will provide a framework for future research in the area of chronic pain and distress in order to advance the understanding of research in the waiting area environment and the effect it may have on the patient. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S.D. Design 2012

Von psychiatrischen Kliniken kann man lernen, welche architektonischen Maßnahmen für psychatrische Patient:innen in Notaufnahmen nützlich sind. Daher wird in diesem Forschungsartikel untersucht, welche architektonischen Elementen aus psychiatrischen Einrichtungen in die des Warteraums einer Notaufnahme integriert werden können. Ziel ist es, ein Designmodell zu entwerfen, das eine gute Wirkung auf psychiatrische Patient:innen mit bipolarer Störung haben soll. Um dies zu erreichen, werden bestehende Literaturstudien und Fallbeispiele aus der Praxis analysiert. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass großflächig festverglaste Fenster, weiche und abgerundete Möbel, natürliche Elemente (Bilder mit natürlichen Motiven), Sonnenlicht und geeignete Beleuchtung sowie helle Farben Angst und Furcht bei psychiatrischen Patient innen verringern können. Die Kombination dieser Kriterien mit den architektonischen Elementen des Warteraums (Raumgröße, Tür, Fenster, Wand, Boden, Decke und Möbel) ermöglicht eine modellhafte Gestaltung, die sich positiv auf psychiatrische Patient:innen mit bipolarer Störung auswirkt.