Students from Lytham Sixth Form College have turned their artistic challenge to make bath time for hospital patients a little more pleasant.
The team of 10 students have been working on a mural of Lytham beach and surrounding areas on the walls of the bath room of Clifton Hospital’s ward 1. It provides a vocational focus for their two year Extended Diploma in Art and Design course. Students work as part of a design team and this is one of their ‘live’ projects working for a real client to help develop their skills for working in the Creative Industries.
Some of the students with their teacher from Lytham Sixth form College.
The brief was set by Clifton hospital staff as they were looking for a way to calm and relax patients who were taking a bath at the hospital.
Ward Manager, Linda Broadbent, said: “We have a lot of patients who are elderly and many have dementia or confusion. We are always looking at ways to relax the patient and bath times can be particularly difficult as it can be quite frightening as the patient feels at their most vulnerable. We asked the college to create something that featured familiar landmarks and set the scene to make the more at ease.”
The team from the college is being led by Art and Design tutor Elaine Jakeman who said: “The students have had to do a lot of preliminary research regarding what would be suitable themes, including the use of colours and motifs that could trigger different emotions.
“Obviously we want to create something that will make the patients feel safe and provide positive feelings and maybe bring back some happy memories. We have been planning for four weeks and meeting with Linda regularly about design proposals. Now we have a finished design which has taken about three days of painting to get the room competed.
“The course is all about making sure the students get a full range of experiences to do with working as a professional designer including this important client liaison to deliver a product. The patient has been at the forefront of the design and I hope they like it.”
Linda said: “We are very happy with the design and can’t wait to see the finished product.”