Restorative environment: post-occupancy-evaluation of gardens in Malaysia Hospitals
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Date
2005-03
Authors
Pei Ting, Wong
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Abstract
Since the year 1998, the idea of creating "Therapeutic Garden" within every
healthcare setting especially the government hospitals was envisioned by the Ministry of
Health, Malaysia with the purpose to provide an environment that contributes towards the
healing process of the garden users. Therefore, this study was conducted empirically to
determine whether the gardens were meeting the goals of restoring attention or gaining
benefits on psychological well-being as proposed by Kaplan's in Attention Restoration
Theory (ART).
This study evaluated five gardens, namely "Therapeutic Garden" at Sibu General
Hospital, Seberang Jaya Hospital, Bukit Mertajam Hospital, Sungai Bakap Hospital and
Kepala Batas Hospital.
Post-Occupancy-Evaluation (POE) was conducted to identify the existence of the
four restorative components, "being away", "extent", "fascination", and "compatibility"
in the gardens and its effects on users' psychological well-being according to Kaplans'
Attention Restoration Theory (ART).
A set of 22-items survey questionnaire inclusive of 14 revised items of Perceived
Restorativeness Scale (PRS) was utilized to yield a dataset of 660 garden users, which
consisted of531 hospital staffs, 101 in-patients, 5 out-patients and 23 visitors, aged from
11 to 71 years old. The demographic information, patterns of garden usage, levels of
agreement on availability of eight attributes (refreshing scent, fresh air, full of light,
cheerful environment, interesting scenic view, open space, free to play, and home feeling)
in the garden and the psychological responses of garden users were reported.
The results revealed that all of the five gardens recorded high restorative
experience even though there are significant differences in their historical background,
size, location, and accessibility to the gardens, patterns of usage, or the availability of
certain attributes in the garden.
However, the garden was not utilized as often or as effectively as intended, as the
majority of outpatients or visitors surveyed throughout the hospitals did not know about
the gardens. Patients, hospital staffs, and visitors many recommended changes for the
garden, such as the inclusion of strategic location, more vegetation, and a well-planned
maintenance to ensure its safety as well as public awareness.
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Keywords
Post-occupancy-evaluation , Garden Malaysia Hospitals