Designing better products, has something to do with involving users during the product development process. So with my focus on nurses, I want to learn to know them. So I observe their tasks, make an appointment for a creative session, sit down for an interview, sounds easy. But there is a big variety in what works at what time with who and where.
I’ve observed several shifts, some still to come. The easiest deep dive in their working live. Good for an overall view and understanding. And mismatches with products are made clear.
Sessions? When? We had some indication that a four hour 9h-13h session hasn’t a big attraction on nurses. Something to do with compatibility with their working hours?
Interviews are easier. Walking in, announced or even sometimes unannounced, sitting down for a short time or just at the hallway. But even this is not always as easy as it sounds.
And I’m working at the hospital, so how are companies and designers involving the nurses??
I have mixed feelings when I visit a nursing unit for my research. Nurses make me feel welcome and I still feel like an intruder in their workspace, lending a bit of their time.
“Can I help you?” A nurse spots me looking for a nurse.
“Yes. I had contact with the unit manager that I would come for an interview on the use of [product]. Am I interrupting?”
“Yes.”
The nurse answers quite directly. Wow, turned down so quickly? The nurse makes it clear that at that moment there is a shortage of nurses on the department. Another nurse stops at the desk and confirms while checking papers: “I already should have left.” I understand. Patients come first, researchers are …well, somewhere else in the ranking… Should I come back later?
A few days later I’m welcomed again, put off, but in a short time I manage to get a partial interview in two minutes. I’m also given a name who to contact if I would be able to come back in the afternoon.
But in the afternoon the nurses are still as busy as in the morning, as is my new contact. I manage to get a 2 minute interview with one of the nurses, who then asks me if I could come back the next day?
The next morning I spot the unit manager. I get a new name who to contact, the nurse coordinator of that day. As she is working at the nursing station, she could maybe have some time to answer my questions. But the nurse coordinator is helping out on the ward as they are again short-staffed and another nurse asks if I could come …?
Although a bit frustrated, I can see the irony. I’m trying to get information to help make products fit nurses better, so their work will be easier and faster, but they don’t have the time. Again I just start asking one of the questions, hoping for at least a 2-minute interview. Then the coordinator joins the conversation and answers almost all my questions between receiving phone calls, assigning tasks, passing info and answering questions by other nurses. And then she asks if she can have her break, someone has brought cake.
Yes, that’s my que!
Posted on October 2, 2016 on ‘Design for Nurses’-blog