Is a hospital room a setting in your book? If you’re wondering how to describe a hospital room in a story, we’ve put together 10 words and short pieces of narrative making use them for you below.
1. Clinical
Definition
- Relating to a hospital patient.
- Methodical or calmly detached.
- With exact precision.
Examples
“Even the posters on the wall were more clinical than comforting. It was less a room and more a doctor’s office with a bed.”
“The clinical instruments crowded around the bed made her look less human and more like a robot.”
How it Adds Description
Describing a hospital room as clinical suggests your character feels the hospital doesn’t see them as a person, only a job. Clinical makes the room feel more like a laboratory for research than a place of healing and adds a sense of dread to the scene.
2. Sterile
Definition
Completely cleaned of all life or micro-organisms.
Examples
“He hated how sterile his hospital room felt; even the smell of the cleaning liquid echoed how completely lifeless it was.”
“I looked around and immediately noticed how sterile and void of life the room felt; how could my mother hope to fight for her life here?”
How it Adds Description
Sterile is a natural word to use when describing a hospital room because it suggests a lack of germs or dirt, things to avoid if you don’t want to cause an infection. However, sterile also implies a place completely empty of personality or variety, which you could use to echo your character’s feelings of hopelessness about being there in the first place.
3. Bare
Definition
- Without coverings; exposed.
- Without superfluous additions, just the necessities.
Examples
“The room was bare apart from a bed, a sink, and a singular uncomfortable chair.”
“She started adding her own touches to the bare hospital room. If she was going to be there a while, might as well make it hers.”
How it Adds Description
Use bare to describe the hospital room to give your reader some specific insight into how the character is feeling about the situation. Having your character describe the room as bare shows the character is feeling as empty and disconnected as the room physically seems.
4. Stuffy
Definition
Oppressive feeling of being closed in.
Examples
“With no fan or window to open, the hospital room began to feel increasingly stuffy and stifling.”
“He had been lying in the hospital bed for so long the air around him felt stuffier with every breath.”
How it Adds Description
If you really want to hammer home how trapped your patient feels, have them describe the hospital room as stuffy. A stuffy hospital room implies a mood of panic and anxiety hanging in the air and gives a negative impression of whatever procedures might be taking place there.
5. Comfortable
Definition
- Providing a sense of safety and relaxation.
- Without doubt or worry.
Examples
“Her mom added some soft bits from home to help the room feel more comfortable for the long haul.”
“The nurses have added little touches, like fresh flowers and personal notes on the whiteboard, to make the room more comfortable compared to the rest of the hospital.”
How it Adds Description
Alternately, someone who has come to terms with the situation or a more advanced or wealthy hospital might have more comfortable rooms. Using more positive language like comfortable shows the reader that this hospital likely leads to more successful outcomes.
6. Private
Definition
- For single or restricted use.
- Secret.
Examples
“When they wheeled me into my own private room, I didn’t know whether to rejoice from the privacy or be worried at the special treatment.”
“We always knew the patient was terminal when they got moved to the private, secluded room on the third floor.”
How it Adds Description
Describing your character’s hospital room as private, shows the reader that they need more specific and specialized medical attention. A private room also suggests the character is unlikely to be leaving the hospital anytime soon.
7. Cramped
Definition
Small and tightly packed.
Examples
“All the life-saving instruments he needed to stay alive made the room seem cramped and crowded.”
“Even though there was only a bed and a bedside table, the cramped hospital room felt fit to burst.”
How it Adds Description
Cramped suggests a claustrophobic atmosphere for a character, caused by not knowing when they will ever leave the hospital room again. Cramped can also highlight how small the room is if you are commenting on the poor state of the hospital or care.
8. White
Definition
Lacking in color or vibrancy, such as snow or a bright light.
Examples
“She was practically blinded by how white the hospital room was; it was like she’d died and gone to the pearly gates.”
“The dark red of the patient’s blood seemed even more alien splattered all over the white walls of the hospital room.
How it Adds Description
Making a point of how white the hospital room looks will highlight for the reader just how empty of color and life the room feels. This also suggests feelings of death, like when those who have died for a few minutes say they saw a white light. The reader will feel anxious for the character in the hospital because the whiteness of it all will feel too much like the character is about to die.
9. Quiet
Definition
Without sound or movement.
Examples
“It was eerie how quiet and empty the hospital room was in the middle of the night.”
“The hospital room was surprising quiet once they turned off the machines keeping him alive.”
How it Adds Description
Hospitals are loud places: there are alarms going off, people rushing around, doctors barking orders. Describing a hospital room as quiet shows that something has gone wrong and will make the reader sit up and pay attention to whatever is happening.
10. Overwhelming
Definition
Crushing sense of being overpowered.
Examples
“The layers of noise from all the alarms and instruments made the room feel overwhelming.”
“The overwhelming hospital room was bursting with activity.”
How it Adds Description
Because overwhelming suggests a loss of power or control, describe the room as overwhelming to show the reader your character is struggling to come to terms with brought them to the hospital in the first place.