Transforming a dull and dated ward is a fantastic way to make staying in hospital a little less daunting for patients. There’s a growing body of research confirming how much of a difference it makes to their wellbeing too.
Throughout this month, we’ve been celebrating 10 years of making hospitals better for patients, staff and everyone else who uses them and, over the past decade, WallGlamour has been one of our most popular ward improvement products. Here’s a few reasons why we think it’s so popular and why it might be right for your ward too.
Affordable
Even if you’re working with limited funds, you’ll want to make that money go as far as it can. Our top tip for ward improvements on a shoestring is to concentrate on making a big difference to a small area first and we often use WallGlamour to help hospitals do this. Once people see what can be achieved, it makes future fundraising a whole lot easier, too!
Quick and easy to install
Unlike painting and wallpapering, which are projects that can take the best part of a week in a big space like a hospital ward, we can install WallGlamour in just a day, meaning the usual routines of staff and patients don’t need to be excessively disturbed and disrupted.
When we transformed the Lowen Ward at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, the demands of the ward meant we didn’t have enough time to paint the walls but instead of leaving them bare, we wrapped them with WallGlamour instead. In the space of a day, we transformed the rooms with minimal disruption meaning that the ward was able to get back to work as quickly as possible.
All of our vinyl images will arrive with us, ready to go. We don’t need to bring excessive amounts of equipment, move lots of furniture (just enough for us to reach the space we need to) or create lots of mess or noise that will disturb patients and turn your ward into a building site! As well as being better for the people that use the hospital on a day-to-day basis, this can go a long way in securing the support of hospital management, too.
Designed around your needs
We have millions of images available for you to choose from and, if that sounds a little daunting, we also have a team of designers on hand who are experts in enhancing care environments. They’ll help you choose the right images for your wards or help you to create a bespoke design that will transform your hospital environment in a way that’s most suitable for your specific patient group.
For children, our 1001 Things To Spot range of images, exclusively licensed by Usborne, are a decorative distraction that can be used in wards, waiting areas or treatment rooms to give young patients something less stressful than their situation and surroundings to focus on.
Lasts a long time
WallGlamour is made from highly durable, wipe clean vinyl. It’s waterproof and washable making it incredibly popular with infection control departments and its long-lasting qualities make it popular with charities too. If you’re applying for funding to transform your wards, it’s worth bearing in mind that charities often like to see their funding provide long term benefits to patients. By including WallGlamour in your plans, you can demonstrate to your chosen charity that you’ll be doing just that.
It helps make wards better as well as brighter
As well as creating a brighter, more positive environment compared to the usual bare, beige spaces found in hospitals, WallGlamour can actually make wards a better place practically, too.
One way we can use it to improve hospitals is by incorporating noticeboards and focused areas for hospital management and other users to display signs. This can help to reduce wall clutter and unintentional decoration that, over time, becomes a visual stressor for both the patients trying to get better and the staff who are helping them. We can even customise images to incorporate important information in place of the usual spread of A4 print outs and laminated signs that have a habit of looking a little bit messy.
Want to win a WallGlamour installation for your ward?
To celebrate a decade of better hospital design, we’re going to be helping make even more hospitals better by giving away some WallGlamour! In fact, as we’re celebrating our 10th birthday, we’re going to be giving away 10 WallGlamour installations to 10 deserving hospitals to use to transform their ward, waiting area or wherever else is in need of a bit of brightening up.
To be in with a chance of winning, all you need to do is sign up for our newsletter by 30 June! Good luck!