The Public Health Nursing Service in Dublin South East recently unveiled environmental changes that are having a meaningful impact on children’s experiences of a healthcare setting at the HSE Donnybrook/Ranelagh Health Centre.
For many children, attending a clinic can be an anxious experience and often the space they are visiting isn’t reflective of their needs during these visits. Led by the Public Health Nursing Service, this project looked to transform the centre’s clinical rooms and universal waiting areas into more warm, welcoming spaces.
Feedback from service users and staff found a need to improve the visual appeal, sensory comfort and opportunities for play and engagement for children during their visit. Parents and children contributed their views through surveys and focus groups, facilitated by the Patient and Service User Engagement Officer. Feedback from service users informed design choice and ensured the space reflected the needs of the service.
A multidisciplinary project team worked collaboratively from concept to completion with the result that the redesigned areas are bright, colourful and engaging, with themes chosen to appeal to children of different ages.
The result now reflects a woodland nature theme in the waiting area, creating a calm and welcoming first impression for all service users. They contain jungle‑themed clinic rooms with colourful murals to encourage curiosity and interaction. They also feature age‑appropriate books and interactive wall toys to support play while waiting.
Child‑sized furniture, floor mats and play‑based assessment aids have also been added to clinic rooms, and adjustable lighting has replaced harsh brightness with a softer, more comfortable environment
Display areas have been improved featuring patient and health promotion information. All materials and toys were selected with infection prevention and control, durability and sustainability in mind.
These changes have helped to create a calmer environment, supporting positive interactions from the moment families arrive. This initiative demonstrates how relatively small environmental changes can have a meaningful impact on children’s experiences of healthcare. The design elements and graphics developed are now available for reuse, making the model easily transferable to other primary care centres.
Feedback from children, parents and staff has been overwhelmingly positive. Staff report that children are more relaxed and easier to engage during assessments, often interacting with wall murals as part of play‑based assessment.
Parents have commented on how welcoming and child‑friendly the space feels, while clients attending adjacent clinics have noted the positive atmosphere created by seeing children relaxed and engaged in the waiting area.