The influence of two hospitals' designs and policies on social interaction and privacy as coping factors for children with cancer and their families.

Children with cancer and their families benefit from both social interaction and privacy in attempting to cope with the stresses of a child's hospitalization and illness. An analysis of findings from a study of stress and coping for children with cancer evaluated design features affecting social interaction and privacy at a hospital in the United Kingdom and a hospital in the United States and some of the ways in which these features and related hospital policies uphold the philosophy of family-centered care and support coping. Implications of these findings with the current call for single occupancy rooms in both countries are explored.