Nurse-centred design: homecare nursing workarounds to fit resources and treat wounds
Year: 2017
Editor: Anja Maier, Stanko Škec, Harrison Kim, Michael Kokkolaras, Josef Oehmen, Georges Fadel, Filippo Salustri, Mike Van der Loos
Author: Al-Masslawi, Dawood; Fels, Sidney; Lea, Rodger; Currie, Leanne M.
Series: ICED
Institution: The University of British Columbia, Canada
Section: Product, Services and Systems Design
Page(s): 181-190
ISBN: 978-1-904670-91-9
ISSN: 2220-4342
Abstract
In recent years the number of patients referred to home and community healthcare units are increasing. Many in this population have chronic or difficult to heal wounds. Homecare nurses provide care for these patients. The resources available to nurses have not increased at the same rate. Observations made in this study indicate that nurses have to fit resources to work around barriers to their work. This is known as a workaround. To identify common workarounds data from 6 weeks of observation was topically coded and thematically analyzed. The findings were validated using a questionnaire. The results point to gaps and limitations in access to reliable, accurate, and consistent resources, especially in work nomadic in nature such as homecare nursing. Workarounds created and used by homecare nurses enable them to negotiate appropriate fits for resources and fill in the gaps. Many of the workarounds were found to be related to computational resources. It is possible that use of these workarounds to inform new design leads to nurse-centred design. This type of design will give homecare nurses access to resources that they need while supporting their nomadic work.
Keywords: User centred design, Workarounds, Homecare, Human behaviour in design, Design methodology