Karen Parzych (Courtesy of SLAM)
In this series, Healthcare Design asks leading healthcare design professionals, firms, and owners to tell us what has their attention and share their ideas on the subject.
Jennifer Parzych is a principal at integrated architecture firm The SLAM Collaborative (Glastonbury, Conn.), where she serves as the health sciences and medical education practice leader.
Here, she shares her thoughts on designing flexible, technology-rich, and wellness-focused educational environments to support future healthcare professionals.
1. Future-ready spaces that accommodate different learning styles
Healthcare shifts fast, and so do the learning styles of the student body. New technologies, changing curricula, digital medicine, and team-based care are all prompting healthcare designers to prioritize flexible rooms, convertible labs, and infrastructure that can evolve with clinical practice.
In addition to this layer of flexibility, designers are also introducing a variety of social and study spaces for students to accommodate different learning styles, preferences, and social capabilities.
2. Technology implementation to strengthen immersive learning
In addition to traditional skills training and dissection-centered human anatomy courses, technology has come a long way in helping students visualize anatomy, simulate patient scenarios, and practice procedural skills. For example, virtual reality headsets and 360-degree projectors can put groups of students anywhere in the world, from a simulated operating room to a home-health setting and even a battlefield trauma environment.
Haptic task trainers and augmented reality trainers allow learners to practice skills, including laparoscopic procedures and ultrasounds. Technology has not replaced the hands-on training but has enhanced it.
3. Interprofessional education
The World Health Organization defines interprofessional education (IPE) as “when students from two or more professions learn about, from, and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes.” As architects, we are responsible for providing the range of environments where this happens.
Students learn about one another by connecting person to person in informal, social, and study environments. They learn with one another in the classroom setting and in cross-disciplinary and case-based learning courses. Plus, they learn from one another in immersive learning environments, like a simulation center and makerspace, where representatives from different disciplines bring their strengths and expertise to the table as part of a larger healthcare team.
4. Welcoming in the community
Increasingly, we’re seeing educational facilities incorporate community spaces into the design, which has numerous benefits to both the student body and wider area. Our institutions are mission-driven, and nearly always that mission includes improving the life and health of their surrounding community. Finding ways for students and community members to interact strengthens that bond and requires intentional programming and planning.
5. Well-being and caring for the whole person
Today’s healthcare students face high stress and high expectations. Design strategies borrowed from healthcare, including daylight, biophilia, quiet rooms, and restorative social spaces, are being integrated into education settings. Creating environments that support students’ overall wellness and mental health isn’t a trend; it’s a design standard.
Want to share your Top 5? Contact Senior Editor Robert McCune at [email protected] for submission instructions.
