A persuasive game design solution: Stress reduction among neonatal nurses

This report presents the development of Interactive Mood, a digital solution that raises awareness of stress among neonatal nurses and stimulates social support within the team. It is part of the graduation project for the master Design for Interaction at the Delft University of Technology and was carried out on behalf of the Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam. Neonatal nurses encounter a great deal of stress, ranging from a high workload and a shortage in staff to the emotional burden deriving from the contact with newborn babies and their relatives. This may lead to among others mental and physical health issues, and absenteeism on the long run. Addressing this issue not only benefits the health of the nurses, but also increases the quality of patient care and the benefits of the organization. Therefore, the goal of the project is to reduce perceived stress of neonatal nurses. An analysis was carried out to find opportunities for design. The analysis included observations, questionnaires, interviews, contextmapping and literature reviews. This research was conducted among the nurses at the NICU. Important aspects that derived from this analysis were a lack of stress awareness and social support. These aspects were used as opportunities in the ideation phase. In addition, persuasive game design was explored and chosen as the deign method for the project. It focuses on a change of attitude and behavior, which suits the previous mentioned opportunities. Several ideas and concepts arose during the ideation phase. Interactive Mood was chosen as a final concept to address the problem. The design is a digital application in which the NICU is displayed in a cartoon-like design. The mood of the nurses as a team is metaphorically presented by means of the weather. Sunny weather stands for a positive mood in the NICU, whereas rain represent a negative mood. Nurses enter their mood manually and the application thereafter displays the average weather as the mean of al the input that is entered. A beta-version of the application was programmed to evaluate the design, usage and effects of Interactive Mood. This evaluation was also conducted among the nurses in the NICU. From the first results can be concluded that Interactive Mood receives positive feedback. Recommendations are made to test Interactive Mood on the long run in order to improve the desired effect.

Subject

persuasive game design
neonatal nurses
neonatal intensive care unit
occupational stress
Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital

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