Sensing Spaces of Healthcare: Rethinking the NHS Hospital is a UKRI-funded University of Bristol research programme which explores the sensory past, present and future of NHS hospitals in England. As part of this wider research, Research Associate Dr Rebecka Fleetwood-Smith - in collaboration with project partners Fresh Arts at Southmead Hospital Bristol and GOSH Arts at Great Ormond Street Hospital London - is leading a study using creative research methods to explore people’s sensory experiences of hospital spaces.   

Creative research methods are defined as arts-based methods which bring research participants ‘into’ the research by inviting them to interact with objects or materials, or to create things such as a collage or drawing in order to enable participants to explore non-verbal, sensory, kinaesthetic, material and imaginative ways of knowing.

Creative research methods were chosen because of their potential to enable participants to articulate experiences that are difficult to talk about or explain.

Sensory experiences are inherently difficult to articulate verbally, and the use of creative methods can support exploring and understanding such experiences.

As Project Evaluation Consultant, my role is to explore the process and impact of using creative research methods within the study. This has included supporting the iterative development of the study’s creative methods through reflective debriefs with Dr Fleetwood-Smith, as well as exploring the accessibility of these research methods, the experience of the research participants, and the depth and quality of participant reflection and insight.

The research study and the evaluation of its use of creative research methodologies will be published in 2023.