From anxiety to calm: transforming pre-surgical waiting with multisensory technology

At Hôpital Privé du Confluent in Nantes, France, multisensory rooms have been incorporated to enhance the patient experience.

Waiting before surgery is a delicate moment. People arrive with a mix of emotions: fear, anxiety, nervousness, fatigue… and in some cases, also pain. Added to this are uncertainty, uncomfortable silence, and incessant thoughts. Emotions are heightened, and the body responds with tension. All this discomfort negatively impacts how the process is experienced.

In this context, the environment can have a significant impact. If the space is cold, impersonal, or noisy, as often happens in hospitals, the discomfort intensifies, and the wait becomes even more difficult.

Faced with this scenario, many hospitals are seeking new ways to emotionally support patients and make this moment more bearable. A great ally to achieve this can be the environment, particularly a multisensory environment designed with therapeutic intent and emotional care.

This is the case at Hôpital Privé du Confluent in Nantes, France, which transformed two of its outpatient surgery waiting rooms into multisensory environments.

Spaces that regulate, soothe, and support

The project, developed in collaboration with our partner ArchiZenco, had a clear goal: to turn these spaces into multisensory environments that help reduce anxiety, create a sense of calm, and improve the emotional well-being of patients before a surgical procedure.

In this way, the environment supports the patient and surrounds them with a pleasant atmosphere, rather than adding more stress—helping each person prepare emotionally for what’s ahead. It’s not the same to wait in an impersonal, distant space as it is to wait in one that embraces you, invites you to breathe, and reconnect with yourself.

To achieve this, the Nantes hospital integrated our multisensory technology to transform these areas into sensory regulation experiences—creating an environment that cares, calms, and accompanies patients during one of the most delicate moments of their hospital journey.

What does a preoperative multisensory room include?

At the Hôpital Privé du Confluent, the aim was to ease the emotional load and offer a more gentle, human-centered experience. To do so, the hospital redesigned its preoperative waiting rooms in the following ways:

1. The typical bright white hospital lighting was replaced with warm, diffused lighting—designed to lower arousal levels and reduce sensory overload. This softer light helps create a calm atmosphere that invites rest and disconnection.
2. The visual setting was also reimagined. Cold or neutral colors were replaced with soft tones, and carefully chosen decorative elements were added to convey warmth, closeness, and a sense of welcome. Every detail—from the walls to the materials—was intentionally selected to break away from the usual coldness of clinical spaces.
3. Multisensory devices were also integrated into each room, using Qinera’s technology. These include bubble tubes with their own light and vibration features, designed to create a soothing and immersive environment. Through visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli, these elements provide relaxing experiences specifically intended to reduce anxiety, support emotional regulation, and accompany the patient during a highly sensitive moment. The result is a space that not only transforms the perception of the hospital environment but also actively contributes to the patient’s emotional well-being. This device became the visual and sensory centerpiece of the room: its gentle lights, the soft bubbling sounds, and its continuous movement invite the gaze to settle, the breath to slow, and the heart to find a new rhythm.

Hospital waiting room – Before the ArchiZenco and Qinera project

Hospital waiting room – After the ArchiZenco and Qinera project

With Qinera’s bubble tubes, it’s possible to create environments where light, vibration, reflection, and interactivity open up a world of possibilities. They stimulate visual tracking, play, and mindfulness. And above all, they allow the person to connect with something simple, repetitive, and deeply calming.

In the hospital’s waiting room, the tube becomes an anchor point. One bubble rises. Another falls. The tube vibrates gently. A soft melody whispers. Attention, previously caught in fear or anxiety, shifts toward a calm, steady stimulus. A comforting space opens up—one that quiets the mind and brings a sense of peace.

What is a multisensory room in a hospital?

Qinera’s multisensory environments are spaces where light, sound, vibration, and other stimuli are harmoniously combined to create controlled sensory experiences. Designed to be physically and cognitively accessible and pleasant, these spaces invite people to reconnect with themselves, regulate their emotions, and positively engage their senses.

Multisensory rooms can serve a wide range of purposes: therapeutic, educational, developmental, recreational, or simply for overall well-being. Thanks to versatile elements like bubble tubes, fiber optics, image projections, or immersive music, it’s possible to create environments tailored to each person, each moment, and each specific need.

In hospitals, a multisensory room might be used in:

• A pre-surgery context, to reduce anxiety, generate calm, and provide emotional support for the patient.
• A labour room, to help mothers relax, breathe, and go through the process with greater serenity.
• In waiting areas, to make the wait more bearable and offer emotional comfort to both patients and their families.
• Or even in an Intensive Care Unit—as is the case at Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge in Barcelona, Spain, which has installed 70 multisensory boxes in its ICU to support patients’ circadian rhythms, reduce polypharmacy, and alleviate post-ICU syndrome, among other benefits—marking a global milestone.👉 Read the article about the Bellvitge hospital case

This project in Nantes reflects how, through a combination of design and technology, it’s possible to transform cold medical environments into more human places.  Because small stimuli, like a warm light, a moving bubble, or a soft melody, can have a profound impact on how a person experiences that waiting moment or any other sensitive situation within a hospital.

More and more hospitals are beginning to transform their spaces and incorporate emotional well-being as an essential part of care.

💜 Thanks to our partner in France for continuing to bring multisensory technology to the spaces where it’s most needed.

Free Project Design

If you want to learn more about the benefits of Multisensory Environments or see how you could adapt it to your space, therapeutic goals, and users, you can send an email to hello@qinera.com.