Research project: The impact of moving to single room hospital accommodation: workforce implications and staff and patients’experience of care in a new physical environment - Dormant

Florence Nightingale influenced basic ward design principles (natural light, ventilation and cleanliness) bringing together all that was needed for patient care in one place. Until the second half of the twentieth century ‘Nightingale wards' remained the ward layout of choice in most NHS hospitals. In the 1960's new builds started to experiment with racetrack wards and 4-6 bedded bay areas. More recently the case has been made for the inclusion of more single room accommodation in new hospital design.

Little research has examined the impact of these changes and in particular the implications for the workforce, who may need to radically alter established patterns of work, are not well understood. This project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council via their Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre (HaCIRIC). It will led by the NNRU in partnership with HaCIRIC staff from Imperial College London, the US Center for Health Care Design's PEBBLE project, staff from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (the site of England's first hospital with exclusive single room inpatient accommodation) and the construction company Laing O'Rourke.

Project team

Peter Griffiths

Project funder

Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre / Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council