Surgery is a daunting enough prospect for adults who understand what is happening but for young children it can be a very frightening and threatening experience. Recognising the adverse effects created by such fears, every effort has been made at the Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida to alleviate anxiety and provide the reassurance and support of a child-friendly and sympathetic environment.
Nowhere is this policy more noticeable than in the corridor, where children take leave of their parents prior to surgery, and further on in the paediatrics pre-surgery waiting room. Here, an Amtico floor plays a vital role in helping to distract the children's minds from the procedures about to take place.
The Amtico floor in the corridor incorporates graphics which depict the St John river that flows through Jacksonville. The river itself is made up of Amtico Florentine Blue, and Amtico Stardust Greens are used for the river banks. Murals on the wall represent the downtown area.
Nicole Jerrel, the in-house designer responsible for the project explains, " We wanted it to be a fun design to take the kids' minds off surgery. We used some bright and cheerful Amtico colours for the main graphical images and we've added a fish, turtle, alligator and a frog. These creatures, seen from above, are depicted several times in different colours as you travel the length of the corridor."
On other floors in the Children's hospital, and specifically in the pre-surgery waiting room, Amtico stripwood is used, with brightly coloured 12" by 12" squares of red, green, purple and yellow Amtico, peppered in amongst the Amtico planking.
Most floors in the hospital were originally timber but gradually the hospital authorities have been "getting away from carpentry" mainly at the request of environmental services whose prime concern is hygiene and maintenance.
Amtico is also used on other floors, notably by the entrance to each elevator where a mixed pattern of different tiles gives a colourful and exciting "rug like" effect. Nicole Jerrel is enthusiastic about the design possibilities provided by Amtico, "Primary colours are great for children and the Amtico colours are so bright! No other floor tiles in the industry can compete."
"I have used Amtico before, mainly for borders and motifs; in elevator cabs, waiting rooms etc. We used Amtico Granite for the service areas of the main hospital and I think Amtico always looks really nice," says Nicole Jerrel. " But the paediatrics wing was a real challenge.
"Larry Freeman, Head of the Children's Hospital and Carolyn Johnson, Hospital Services, provided the brief saying 'the kids are scared, what can you do?' We came up with several designs and said basically, here's the colour palette, which do you prefer?"
Nicole Jerrel was the design team leader working with Gina Coyle, a talented designer and somebody she found invaluable as a sounding board for ideas. The team also co-operated closely with Custom Kids of Jacksonville, who designed the murals.
Design: In-house team
Amtico Products: NM97 Florentine Blue, GZ887 Stardust Light Green, GZ88 Dark Green and other Stardust products
Contractor: Troy Petty