DesigNurse: Active involvement of nurses in improving their own work environment

Abstract

The high workload of nurses could be decreased by solutions that improve the work environment. Solutions that are currently made are not implemented effectively on the units. This report will describe a design project leading to a way in which nurses can be involved in improving their own work environment which will lead to a decreased workload an more job satisfaction. The first part of the report shows that improvement opportunities nurses face do not reach the departments that could solve these opportunities. To involve nurses, in order to decrease their workload and increase their job satisfaction, it is not only important for them to be involved in projects that are started at the technical departments. Participatory design theory shows that by giving users a voice in what could be improved in their work, not only will the solutions fit the context better, having a say in what happens will by itself add to the job satisfaction.
The following chapter elaborates on different personas of nurses, what they currently do with improvement opportunities and what limits them in doing so.
Nurses currently improve the processes on their own units. This can be done by the nurses themselves. If an opportunity can not be improved on by nurses themselves, this opportunity will not be documented or improved upon.
Based on the insights of this research a design goal was formulated:
Design a participatory design process to improve the work environment of nurses, in which all relevant stakeholders are included and actively involved.
The ideation phase describes how the active role of nurses was chosen.
For a nurse to be actively involved, they need time and the ability to take responsibility. Though activating nurses without other relevant stakeholders also having time and responsibility, the workload and job satisfaction will not improve. Therefore the design of “De Ontwerkgroep” was made. “De Ontwerkgroep” is a multidisciplinary team that has the goal of improving the work environment of nurses. This team exists of three roles, the DesigNurse, the Design Engineer and the Design Facilitator. These three roles work together in an improvement process where the DesigNurses gather improvement opportunities from the units. The team shares the improvement opportunities and prioritizes them. The entire team even the DesigNurses are involved in generating solutions. After which the Design Engineers make or buy a prototype to test. This design shows the roll of all the stakeholders that need to be involved for a nurse to be able to be actively part of improving their own work environment. It takes away the beforementioned limitations and creates a clear process in which improvements can be made. It allows nurses to use the critical mindset some of them already have. This design is a communication tool, to show a board of a hospital what is needed in order for nurses to be actively involved in improving their work environment. Which is in line with the vision of continuous improvement and innovation.