Patients’ and Nurses’ Experiences of All Single-Room Hospital Accommodation: A Scoping Review

Aim and Objective: To identify, examine, and map literature on the experiences of single-room hospital accommodation, exploring what is known about how single-room accommodation in hospitals is viewed by patients and nurses. Background: Worldwide, hospital design is changing to mainly single-room accommodation. However, there is little literature exploring patients’ and nurses’ experiences of single-room designs. Design: Scoping review following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidance on scoping reviews. Methods: We conducted the search in medical databases for scientific and gray literature. The four authors independently used a data extraction tool to include sources from the searches. The sources were discussed during the process, and in case of a disagreement between two reviewers, the third and fourth reviewer would be invited to participate in the discussion until consensus was achieved. Results: We included 22 sources published during the period 2002–2020, with a majority ( n = 16) during the period 2013–2020. The sources were distributed on 10 different countries; however, England dominated with 14 publications. We found three main maps for reporting on patients’ experiences: (1) personal control, (2) dignity, and (3) by myself. For the nurses’ experiences, we found four main maps: (1) the working environment, (2) changes of nursing practice, (3) privacy and dignity, and (4) patient safety. Conclusion: We suggested that patients’ and nurses’ experiences are predominantly interdependent and that the implications of single-room accommodation is a large and complex issue which goes beyond hospital design.