Preferences for photographic art among hospitalized patients with cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To determine the preferences of patients with cancer for viewing photographic art in an inpatient hospital setting and to evaluate the impact of viewing photographic art. DESIGN Quantitative, exploratory, single-group, post-test descriptive design incorporating qualitative survey questions. SETTING An academic medical center in the midwestern United States. SAMPLE 80 men (n = 44) and women (n = 36) aged 19-85 years (X = 49) and hospitalized for cancer treatment. METHODS Participants viewed photographs via computers and then completed a five-instrument electronic survey. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES Fatigue, quality of life, performance status, perceptions of distraction and restoration, and content categories of photographs. FINDINGS Ninety-six percent of participants enjoyed looking at the study photographs. The photographs they preferred most often were lake sunset (76%), rocky river (66%), and autumn waterfall (66%). The most rejected photographs were amusement park (54%), farmer's market vegetable table (51%), and kayakers (49%). The qualitative categories selected were landscape (28%), animals (15%), people (14%), entertainment (10%), imagery (10%), water (7%), spiritual (7%), flowers (6%), and landmark (3%). Some discrepancy between the quantitative and qualitative sections may be related to participants considering water to be a landscape. CONCLUSIONS The hypothesis that patients' preferences for a category of photographic art are affected by the psychophysical and psychological qualities of the photographs, as well as the patients' moods and characteristics, was supported. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Nurses can play an active role in helping patients deal with the challenges of long hospital stays and life-threatening diagnoses through distraction and restoration interventions such as viewing photographic images of nature. KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION Nurses can use photographic imagery to provide a restorative intervention during the hospital experience. Photographic art can be used as a distraction from the hospital stay and the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis. Having patients view photographs of nature is congruent with the core nursing values of promoting health, healing, and hope.