During March, Orvis School of Nursing students from the University of Nevada, Reno, traveled to Kampot, Cambodia, as part of a global health exchange program where they visited Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital — a healthcare facility that stood out because of its unique design.
Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital is a few miles west of Kampot. At this hospital, the space between buildings is just as important as what’s inside them.
The hospital is a series of enclosed buildings that make up the hospital’s different wards, including maternity and pediatrics. Instead of taking enclosed hallways to get between buildings, patients and visitors use open-air, terracotta walkways.
Depending on the time of day, different kinds of wildlife could be heard. The birds chirping emanated throughout the day, and around mid-day the non-stop, high-pitched buzzing of cicadas filled the space.
Wildlife became part of the background of daily care.
While the open-air layout is practical for Cambodia’s hot and humid climate, this design is unique. Kin Sou, the hospital’s chief administrative officer, said it was designed with more than climate in mind.
“The concept and architecture was designed for children, not for adults,” Sou said “They don’t want to frighten the children so they built low buildings. They need space. Patients like children come and enjoy running [around].”
Although the design was originally made for pediatric care, it now shapes treatment for everyone at the hospital.
For Chi Vorn, this means taking his father outside. His father was admitted after a medical emergency and now uses a wheelchair.
“I say that the hospital has a nice and clean environment with trees and grass and also a fresh breeze. Whenever I go out and carry my dad, it feels fresh and really helps reduce stress,” Vorn said.
For the Orvis School of Nursing students from the University of Nevada, Reno, this setting of care is different from what they have experienced during their other clinicals and experiences in the United States.
Back in Reno, student Alex Henrikson works at Renown Regional Medical Center. He said an open-air layout like the one in Kampot, would be difficult to replicate in the U.S., especially in a city like Reno, where hospitals need to accommodate more patients. Even so, there are efforts to bring nature into care.
At Renown, a space called Fianna’s Healing Garden was created in memory of Fianna Dickson Combs, who believed in the healing power of the outdoors.
Henrikson said it’s well-maintained, but sometimes underutilized because it’s so far away from the patients’ rooms. But when patients do use it, it’s meaningful.
“I think it's very beneficial for their health. You kind of see a change in just their mood, but being able to just go outside and relax away from the beeping monitors and all that,” he said.
At Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital, wards and walkways are part of the same continuous space. Stepping outside isn’t something that needs to be planned — it just happens.
Chhagn Reasmey, head of the in-patient nursing department, said this can be helpful for patients who want to go outside but have limited mobility.
“It’s a good sign if they can go out from the bed, especially outside of the building. It’s a good sign that they can get better soon and can go home,” she said.
Deputy chief nursing officer Cathy Pingoy said patients often feel relaxed in this environment. So much so that some will even set up mats to lie in the sun.
“We try to control that as much as possible for safety, but when they do that they know that your facility is really nice,” she said.
Pingoy said it’s important to create a restful environment for patients to be able to heal.
At Sonja Kill Memorial Hospital, healing doesn’t just happen in beds or behind walls. It happens in the space in between. In the breeze. In the sun. In the outdoors.
This story was done in collaboration with the Reynolds School of Journalism’s Hitchcock Project for Visualizing Science and Orvis School of Nursing.
