Lay summary
Hospitals in Aotearoa New Zealand have a legacy founded in colonialism and are designed to Eurocentric principles of health and well-being – as such they are inequitable by design and represent culturally unsafe spaces for many people who need to access them. Hospital waiting rooms represent one such space. Our project is premised on understanding how physical spaces in hospitals shape people’s experiences of care. Bringing culture centred design to hospital spaces holds potential as a new mechanism to supporting culturally safe healthcare practice. This project realises a new, unique collaboration between healthcare professionals, healthcare scientists, Māori health researchers and an indigenous design agency. It is the first of its kind in Aotearoa. The project will involve communities and health consumers through a kaupapa Māori design process to co-create a re-imagined virtual waiting room and inform healthcare environment design more broadly.