Sacred Heart Pensacola: PICU/PACU

Sacred Heart Hospital of Pensacola hired us at FREN to decorate and theme their new pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and pre/post anesthesia care unit (PACU). These areas are where patients are prepared before surgery and held afterward, and can represent one of the most fraught and anxiety inducing point for patients and the parents who have to leave their side for the duration of the surgery. Our goal was to create a calming environment with plenty of positive distractions which also adhered to a coastal theme.

Most of the work we did took the form of environmental murals drawn by myself. They featured softly colored underwater scenes featuring wildlife native to the Gulf and occasional sights like the artificial reef/wrecks which exist in Pensacola waters. We went with a ‘deep dive’ theme, with surgery being the deepest part of the dive, PACU being the mid-level green waters, and PICU being the recovery area with blue waters as they appear closest to the surface. We also featured heavily in the PACU the analogy of sea turtles; turtle parents must abandon their eggs on the beach, but the young turtles traverse the dangerous ocean to return to them in the end, just like the parents must do with the patients. The units also include screens which mesh seamlessly with the environment behind them to allow animated fish to swim by. The screens are located in strategic points in the hallway and attached to the ceiling above each PICU bed, for easy viewing when laying down. While I drew all of the fish assets for the animations, it was up to one of my coworkers to handle the animations themselves. Patients may also use iPads provided in each room to scan mural elements with our FREN augmented reality app to make swimming fish appear in the room along with a fun fact about each species. Honestly, I spent too long researching to find at least one cool fact about each one, so now I know entirely too much about Gulf wildlife!

Also, keep an eye out for scuba diving dogs in the murals. I gave the hospital’s three therapy dogs cameos in various places!