Nurse App - Patient Pill Intake Tracking
User Research, Ethnography, Task Analysis, Prototyping, Responsive Design
A tablet-centric app to manage patient treatment and medication intake, for use by hospital staff, primarily doctors and nurses
Task Description
Design an interface for an application that will allow a hospital nursing staff to track the medication given to a patient.
Design an interface for an application that will allow a hospital nursing staff to track the medication given to a patient.
Focus only on the profile of a single patient.
The nurse should have access to basic patient information.
The user should have the ability to easily enter a medication taken, and also see what medication has already been given to the
patient.
Scenarios
Interface should accommodate, although they are not the only possibilities.
The nurse should have access to basic patient information.
The user should have the ability to easily enter a medication taken, and also see what medication has already been given to the
patient.
Scenarios
Interface should accommodate, although they are not the only possibilities.
Case A:
A nurse has just visited with a patient and administered a medication. She has accessed the page in the application where she needs to enter
the medication. The patient has not taken the medication before but needs to take the medication 4 more times in the next 48 hours. The
patient is currently taking 3 other medications. One medication is for a chronic condition, and the other two medications were first
administered when he arrived at the hospital.
Case B:
A physician comes to see the patient. The physician has opened a screen to see all the medications the patient is currently taking. The
physician wants to see:
Were all necessary medications administered to the patient?
How far along is the patient with the treatment?
Does the patient take any other medications?
A physician comes to see the patient. The physician has opened a screen to see all the medications the patient is currently taking. The
physician wants to see:
Were all necessary medications administered to the patient?
How far along is the patient with the treatment?
Does the patient take any other medications?
The physician wants to prescribe one more medication but she is not sure if it would be in conflict with a medication that the patient already
takes for a chronic condition.
Data Points
This is an outline of the basic data points to consider.
For patient information:
Full Name
Patient ID
Bed Number
DOB
Phone Number
Diagnosis
Current Doctor
For medication entry:
Medication Name
Dose (e.g. 500mlg twice daily)
Prescribing Physician
Treatment Start and End Date
Time Administered
Administering Staff Member
Medication Name
Dose (e.g. 500mlg twice daily)
Prescribing Physician
Treatment Start and End Date
Time Administered
Administering Staff Member
A patient is expected to take, on average, 3 to 8 types of medication.
Design Approach
- Contextual design; provide the right information at the right time
- Understand the environment; stress levels can change dynamically from slow to high intensity, this should be a consideration in how the app presents information to the user
- Reduce critical mistakes; patient interactions can often be sporadic and random, which increases the risk of confusion and mistakes; help minimize these risks, save lives, save money
- Design for the intended medium; tablets like iPads afford larger screen real estate; provide as much contextual information as possible without causing cognitive overload
Patient overview display. Scenario A. I split the screen layout to accommodate information for what's happened and what needs to happen now.
Medication adding and updating workflow, when the user presses the + icon. We're trying to eliminate mistakes, so the system will be able to be configured to prevent mismatched medications based on patient diagnosis. This can be overwritten, but there will be an accountability trail
Patient overview display. Scenario B. The focus here is the treatment timeline providing a glanceable and filtered overview of all patient treatment activities completed and still remaining.
What I Learned
- At the end of the day, in our current society, consistent in-depth one-to-one patient/staff relationships is now a rarity. Usually, you see a specialist for ten minutes and then deal with a mish mash of random medical staff. This is all largely due to the need to accommodate increased patient numbers, contend with understaffing, and the resultant increased operational tempos of the average hospital.
- There are many moving parts, and things can get lost in the ether. So this app must be able to keep all parties involved communicating on the same wave lengths, track accountability, and provide the right information when needed. Mistakes here can be lethal and expensive.
- I'd like to explore how a similar app could be developed for the patient's benefit and usage. I'm sure there'd be pushback from some medical professionals, but I think patients are very much part of the equation, and have the right to know what's going on to and around them.
