Patient responsibility reallocation: a user-centered approach to support nurses' handling of nurse calls

A central part of nurses' work at a hospital department is to respond to nurse calls issued by patients in need of assistance. In the highly dynamic work environment, where nurses need to continuously shift focus and handle interruptions, managing nurse calls presents a challenge. Previous studies of nurses' use of a wireless nurse call system deployed at a major Norwegian university hospital, point to how nurses apply various strategies to handle nurse calls efficiently. These strategies involve a high degree of collaboration and coordination among nurses. By means of a user-centered approach, a system prototype has been designed. This system aims to support nurses in their continuous reallocation of patient responsibilities, through the utilization of ubiquitous computing principles. We present results from the evaluation of the system prototype, for which a qualitative methodology was adopted. More concretely, we combined interviews and role-playing workshops with nurses and student nurses in order to (1) evaluate usability- and acceptability-related aspects and (2) evaluate the feasibility of the system to be used in real practice. The results indicate that the prototype design would further reinforce an already existing practice, allowing nurses to reallocate the patient responsibility more easily. Further, the system could support and improve the communication among nurses and reduce the number of unwanted interruptions. The paper concludes by describing how applying a user-centered approach in designing pervasive computing system is vital in order to make the technology seamlessly blend in with its context of use.