ABSTRACT
Due to our socio-cultural peculiarities, patients in this part of the world need (apart from formal caregivers) informal caregivers who are often family members of the patients that stay with them almost every hour of their hospitalization. These family caregivers play important role in patients? recovery process. Patients depend on family caregivers for assistance with activities of daily living and communicating with health care professionals. In addition, their stay with the patients help the patients feel like at home. In spite of the well-established role of family caregiving in hospitals of particularly North-Western geopolitical zone of Nigeria, the architecture of hospitals and the process involved in the design centred around patients and Health care professionals, to the total exclusion of family caregivers. As a result, hospital planning and design in this geopolitical zone and elsewhere where the practices of family caregiving exist have produced hospitals that function at variance with ambient cultural practices. This study evolves spatial needs and space standards for family caregiving activities in the design of general hospitals. Survey research method was employed where a total of 80 questionnaires were administered to 80 pairs of respondents that comprise of family caregivers and patients in six general hospitals chosen from 3 out of 7 states that constitute the North-Western part of Nigeria. The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics. The study established the following as the main space needs for family caregivers; sleeping, food preparation eating, storage of belongings, toilets and laundry facilities, relaxation areas, and finally a medical check-up facility. It also established that, the aforementioned spaces would be best located within the patients facilities and some in close proximity to the in patients facilities. Therefore, it is recommended that architects and allied professionals exploit findings vii from this research, for it will help and guide them in coming up with a more successful and functional hospital design that will, to a large extent, satisfy the needs of the people that partake in family caregiving activities.