SLOWLY
A digital reflection tool to help Dutch nurses tell their story.
M.I. Sabée (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
E Ozcan Vieira – Mentor (TU Delft - Form and Experience)
Niko J.H. Vegt – Mentor (TU Delft - Form and Experience)
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Abstract
The extraordinary working conditions caused by the first wave of COVID-19 patients caused stress, anxiety and lack of sleep in frontline nurses. This negatively impacted their psychological well being which is important for providing optimal care and maintaining long-term employability (Schoonhoven & Trappenburg, 2020). There is a lack of accessible and low-threshold support tools such as online peer support platforms for nurses. While storytelling driven online peer support is a promising tool, it is unclear how it should be designed. This project aimed to design a storytelling tool, specific to the psychological needs of the Dutch nurses, that best facilitates online peer support. This report describes the research, design and evaluation activities as part of the design process of SLOWLY - A tool that helps nurses reflect on their experiences, preparing them to write a story to be shared as part of online peer support.
A context and target group analysis lead to the assessment of the thirteen fundamental needs (Desmet & Fokkinga, 2020). Fulfilment of autonomy, competence and relatedness, as part of self determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), was found to be critically low. This was the primary source for the design requirements of SLOWLY.
After using the design requirements to access a wide variety of design interventions, SLOWLY proved to be the most promising concept due to its potential to provide understanding about an experience in an accessible, low-threshold and safe manner. A detailed digital prototype was created, which used five storytelling prompts (character, setting, plot, conflict and theme) to guide nurses in a five day reflection process. Their responses were shown to them during the writing process to help them write stories with more details relevant to their experience.
SLOWLY was found to provide increased understanding of the experience based on user testing with seven participants. It showed potential to fulfil all three critically affected fundamental needs. An additional expert review with one nurse yielded a positive response to the likeability, ease of use, clarity and benefit of SLOWLY.
The results of this project provided insight into the potential role of storytelling in facilitating online peer support for nurses. Further research is recommended to evaluate longitudinal effects and possible interactions as a result of story sharing.