Objective: To assess whether the feng shui of critical care bed spaces affects the inner
      harmony of nursing staff Design: Prospective cohort study Setting: Doncaster critical care
      department Participants: Critical care nursing staff Main outcome measures: To assess
      self-reported chi scores and their response to feng shui, cake ingestion and ghost sightings

Feng Shui And Emotional Response in the Critical Care Environment Study

Feng Shui

Feng Shui Feng shui is an ancient Chinese system that governs the arrangement and orientation
      of objects in a room, in relation to the flow of energy called chi or qi. The flow of chi in
      a room or building may have beneficial or undesirable effects on a persons' feelings and
      inner harmony. Each feeling is associated with an element: fire, water, wood, earth and
      metal. These elements are used to describe the colours and shapes in the surroundings. For
      example fire could be represented as a candle for many reasons; the flame, warmth generated
      from the flame and red colour.

      Bagua A bagua is a tool used to map an area to facilitate the flow of chi. A traditional
      bagua is octagonal, each of the eight segments associated with a feeling and therefore an
      element, shape and colour. The traditional bagua is aligned to the compass before an area is
      mapped out.The western bagua uses a nine panelled grid, with each panel associated with a
      feeling and therefore an element, shape and colour.The base of the grid is aligned against
      the wall of a room which has the main entrance contained within it. The room can then be
      divided into nine sections, each corresponding to a bagua panel. Objects that possess
      qualities of an element can then be rearranged to promote the flow of chi in a certain area
      of a room.

      Nurturing and destructive relationships There are nurturing and destructive relationships
      between the elements, that affect the flow of chi and therefore the feelings of the affected
      element.For example an earth object placed in an area associated with metal will increase the
      flow of chi in this area and increase the feelings associated with it. Equally if a fire
      object is placed in an area associated with metal, there will be a negative impact on the
      flow of chi and therefore the a reduction in the feelings in this area. Using the above
      principles of feng shui it is possible to re-arrange a room to enhance the flow chi and
      achieve positive influence for ones feelings. It may not be possible to completely re-arrange
      a room due to fixed structures such as a window, radiator etc. In this case a bagua and
      knowledge of the nurturing and destructive cycles can be used to make adjustments to get the
      best possible flow of chi.

      Critical care Critical care departments can be intensive places to work. In addition to the
      usual hospital equipment such as a bed, locker and table, critical care bed spaces have
      several extra pieces of equipment including a ventilator and stacks for infusion pumps. By
      mapping and scoring bed space orientations, we hypothesized that it is possible to predict
      how nursing staff should feel working in these bed spaces. The purpose of this study was to
      determine whether the principles of feng shui apply to critical care bed spaces and therefore
      affect the inner harmony of nursing staff during a shift.

      The critical care department to be studied contains 20 beds that are used for a mix of level
      two or three care depending upon patient need and nursing staff capacity. Of these beds, 15
      are split almost equally into two orientations. A plan of each orientation will be divided
      into nine sections to correspond to a bagua panel. Each item of equipment will be assigned a
      feng shui element based upon its shape or colour. Using a bagua, the feng shui of each bed
      space will be mapped. For each bagua panel a +1 will be awarded for each piece of equipment
      that positively influenced chi either directly or indirectly through the nurturing cycle.
      Conversely a -1 will be awarded for each piece of equipment that negatively influenced chi
      either directly or indirectly through the destructive cycle. The points awarded in each panel
      will then be added together to give a feng shui score for that panel. The feng shui score
      will be limited to -5 and +5. This score will then be converted to a 0-10 'chi score' for
      nurse self-assessment and to allow data analysis.

      For the purpose of our study we assume that a positive score would result in a positive flow
      of chi and therefore positively affect the feeling or attribute associated with that panel
      for a nurse working at that bed space. We assume the opposite would be true of a negative
      score.

      Critical care nursing staff will be allocated to bed spaces by the nursing coordinator, the
      allocation may be based upon nursing skill mix. Nursing staff will be asked to voluntarily
      complete a questionnaire towards the end of their shift.

      Data Questionnaires will be distributed to all participants. The questionnaire requires
      participants to self-assess their chi by rating nine feelings associated with the bagua and
      their overall inner harmony from 0 to 10 (Table 1). Participants will be blinded to the feng
      shui scoring of their bed space. Nursing staff who are not assigned to a bed space will also
      be asked to fill in the questionnaire to act as a control group.

      The investigators have previously observed that cake has a positive effect on nursing staff
      mood. The study hospital is also well known for ghost sightings which may result in negative
      mood. Therefore the questionnaire also asks if the nursing staff have encountered either of
      these potentially confounding factors. Questionnaires will collected and stored until after
      the study period expired.

      There will be no patient participation Statistical analysis will be performed using IBM SPSS
      (version 22). A p-value of <0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.

No intervention

FARCE Study: Feng Shui And Emotional Response in the Critical Care Environment

Each bed space orientation has a calculated bed space feng shui score. This will be used to predict how nursing staff feel at the end of their shift. Nursing staff will be given a questionnaire to voluntarily fill in asking them to rate 10 feelings. Nursing staff will have the option of rating each feeling from 0 to 10. The resulting nurse self assessment score will then be compared to the calculated bed space feng shui score.

Nursing staff allocated to a bed space with orientation 1

Nursing staff allocated to a bed space with orientation 2

Nursing staff not allocated to a bed space with an orientation.

Feng Shui And Emotional Response in the Critical Care Environment Study

About this trial

Study ID

Status

Type

Placebo

Accepting

Trial Timing

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