What term describes the experience of navigating through healthcare surroundings?

The term that accurately describes the experience of navigating through healthcare surroundings is wayfinding. Wayfinding involves a combination of spatial and informational knowledge that helps individuals understand how to get to their desired destination within a healthcare facility. It encompasses not just physical navigation through the environment but also the cognitive processes involved, such as interpreting signs, maps, and other navigational aids.

In the context of healthcare, effective wayfinding can enhance the patient experience by reducing anxiety and confusion when trying to locate services, departments, or specialists. This is essential in complex facilities where multiple buildings and services are offered.

While patient navigation typically refers to the support role that helps patients deal with the healthcare system as a whole—assisting them in understanding their healthcare options, filling out paperwork, and making appointments—it does not specifically focus on the physical act of moving through a facility. Route planning may sound relevant, but it mainly concerns creating a pathway or plan to reach a specific location rather than the broader experience of navigating an environment. Healthcare guiding is a more generic term and lacks the specificity that "wayfinding" provides in this context.