After feeling a sharp, deep pain in the lower right side of his abdomen while wrestling with his daughter one day, Mark felt compelled to pay close attention to the feeling. Months earlier, one of his co-workers had ignored something similar and experienced a near-fatal appendicitis. While shoveling several inches of fresh snowfall a few days later, the pain spiked again and Mark didn’t hesitate to call his internist. After inspecting the abdominal region and asking a series of questions, the internist directed Mark to immediately set up a CT scan to determine the cause of the pain. As a relatively healthy and active fortysomething, Mark had never needed a CT scan prior to this incident. With a young family, his worries began mounting the moment the doctor recommended the procedure. After checking into the imaging center, he was led down a long hallway to a small room where he was instructed to remove his clothes and don standard hospital gown. The room was a typical circa 1970s patient room, which furthered his discomfort. After changing into the gown, he was led by a nurse to the CT room. To his surprise and delight, the room was bright and colorful. When he was led to the machine and asked to lie on his back, Mark felt a comforting breath leave his lips when he noticed an illuminated blue sky in place of the typical, white ceiling tiles. He felt like he was anywhere but a stuffy doctors office. Mark’s story can be retold thousands of times every day as patient’s face the stress and worry of medical examinations. Thanks to imaging technology, identifying serious malignancies leads to easier and more efficient treatments. The use of medical imaging is expanding, but most imaging departments are buried deep in the interior of hospitals and medical centers. This sterile environment needed for these procedures can appear emotionally cold and start to patients. The RadSciences group, a hospital and medical imaging consulting agency, recently conducted a survey of technicians in the medical imaging field about the benefits of a more relaxed atmosphere for patients acing imaging procedures. When asked how important it is to help the patient relaxed during the procedure, over 70% said it was extremely important. That said, only 22% used any type of ceiling art, wall imagery or relaxation technique and even fewer have rooms designed for relaxation. Though underutilized, this tech need is made easier with various forms of ceiling art. Instead of just encouraging the patient to visualize a relaxing, faraway or call me place, a scene is directly in front of (or above) the patient, providing a focus point and encouraging relaxation.
The Biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. In patients or even hospital staff are confined to areas within hospitals or imaging centers for elongated periods, they can experience feelings of uneasiness, fear and depression. He are part of nature; we are drawn to it, and evidence is mounting daily that being closer to nature is relaxing and beneficial. Ceiling art can bring the color and beauty of nature into this sterile and sometimes strive world of the medical environment, strengthening the patient in this manner. Ceiling art is often used in schools, offices, clinics and pediatric wards, but it is the ability to provide a “window” in an otherwise windowless room that makes it beneficial in the healthcare environment. As a Southern medical group representative put it, “[Outdoor Scenery] gives patients something to focus on other than the fact that they are having this can and possibly wondering what might be wrong, which can be very stressful. It is very relaxing and the patients can picture themselves there [in the scene] instead of where they really are.”
To his relief, marks abdominal pain turned out to be nothing more than a passing inflammation. His daughter can now feel free to pounce without harmful repercussions.