Hospital employees’ perceptions of circadian lighting: a pharmacy department case study

The effects of lamp types and surface reflectance combinations on the subjective perception of a simulated lit hospital ward environment

Purpose

Good illumination creates an aesthetic environment that may positively influence patients’ well-being and provide comfort to the hospital staff. This study aims to focus on exploring the energy efficiency of lighting and subjective perception of the lit environment in a hospital ward to assess quality indicators of ambient lighting conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

The existing conventional tubular fluorescent lamp–based lighting system in the surveyed patients’ ward was retrofitted with light-emitting diode (LED) luminaires to explore illumination and energy parameters. Thereafter, a software lighting model was created, simulated and analyzed. A Web-based survey with five bipolar adjective pairs in a semantic differential scale was conducted with 48 participants to record and analyze their subjective responses pertaining to the variations in lamp types and surface reflectance combinations.

Findings

The findings imply that the LED tubular lamp–based illumination was deemed more adequate compared to other lamp types and the effects of variations in room surface reflectance combinations on the participants’ responses were statistically significant at α = 0.05 level. The simulated horizontal work plane average illuminance level varied from 131 to 171 lx, mean room surface exitance (MRSE) levels remained between 30 and 90 lm/m2 and overall uniformity of illuminance remained between 0.5 and 0.7.

Originality/value

In a hospital ward illuminated by LED tubular lamps, variations in room surface reflectance combinations for a constant luminous flux package output from the lamps may affect the subjective perception of users and the correlation between horizontal work plane average illuminance and MRSE is found to be highly linear (coefficient of determination > 0.97).

Model of Organizational Commitment Applied to Health Management Systems

In this paper, we try to build on the problems surrounding the management of human resources in health care organizations worldwide. After the analysis of the reviewed literature, we detected that the scientific community considers several recurring themes that need attention: stress, burnout, and turnover intention. Based on this, we developed a model of organizational commitment that aims to achieve performance and health quality, its main result the establishment of the appropriate management policies in order to avoid the abandonment of the organization through the search for commitment and job satisfaction. Amongst our main conclusions, we highlight the need to implement a human resources model for hospital administrators based on the relationships with "patients" not "clients" through the maintenance of a positive and strong atmosphere of staff participation. It is important to develop innovative practices related to clear job design that eliminate reasons for ambiguity and stress in executing the tasks of the healthcare system. Finally, we urge training programs in transformational leadership to promote the well-being and organizational commitment of employees.