Author Identifier (ORCID)
Emil E. Jonescu: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3508-406X
Abstract
Environmental design in palliative care settings receives increasing attention, yet methodologies for studying such environments often lack interdisciplinary integration. Traditional research designs may overlook the lived expertise of clinicians and designers. Objectives: This article describes a collaborative, cross-disciplinary communities-of-practice model developed as a methodological framework to enable effective environmental evaluation and design processes in healthcare settings. Its application is illustrated through a case study in a palliative care unit. Methods: A co-designed, multi-methods approach was developed by a team of clinicians, facility managers, and academic researchers. The methodology included a scoping review, site-specific environmental data logging (sound, temperature, lighting), and co-created survey tools for staff and patients or proxies. Data were collected over two phases, following ethically approved protocols to protect privacy and support data validity. Results: The communities-of-practice model successfully integrated cross-sector expertise, improved the contextual relevance of study instruments, and enabled real-time, context-sensitive data collection in a high-acuity clinical setting. The method supported context-aware adaptations that would not have emerged from conventional top-down research approaches, effectively bridging academic inquiry and practical clinical application. Conclusion: The communities-of-practice model offers a replicable, interdisciplinary method for researching complex healthcare environments. Its case study in a palliative care unit demonstrates its capacity to generate actionable insights aligned with patient-centred outcomes. As health architecture increasingly intersects with evidence-based care delivery, such methodological approaches are vital for aligning design decisions with clinical and human-centred goals.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Publication Title
Health Environments Research and Design Journal
Publisher
Sage
School
School of Arts and Humanities
Funders
National Health and Medical Research Council
Grant Number
NHMRC Number : 2017081
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Jonescu, E. E., Farrell, B., Ramanayaka, C. E., Delaney, L., Litton, E., Uylaki, T. J., Watts, G., Brigham, B., Bellemore, F., & Seah, D. (2025). A collaborative communities-of-practice methodology for environmental design research: A case study application in palliative care. Health Environments Research & Design Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/19375867251365876