Investigating the use of Scent in a Medical Service Environment

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate if introducing ambient scents to health care facilities will enhance patient experience. In order to broaden and develop the focus on previous research, this paper presents two separate but related studies. The first one investigates the impact of the fragrances on children in a public hospital through a qualitative study. The second study occurs in a dental office and is quantitative in nature. The dental service experience is often associated with fear and anxiety (Lehrner et al. (2000), while hospitalization is a stressful and painful experience for the child, the family, as well as for the hospital staff. Two different types of patients and situations are examined through these field studies.