NHS at Home: Co-Designing a 21st Century Nursing Bag

Swann, David (2012) NHS at Home: Co-Designing a 21st Century Nursing Bag. Doctoral thesis, Royal College of Art.

PDF - Submitted Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (11MB)

Abstract

Healthcare providers throughout the world are facing unprecedented change. In rising to social, demographic and economic pressures, the National Health Service is mobilising hospital treatments into patient’s homes (Darzi, 2006).
The black nursing bag, the universal transportation tool of the district nurse has remained impervious to design change for over 100 years. The goal of the PhD is to equip newly formed neighbourhood care teams working in this emergent healthcare setting with a 21st century nursing bag. The design practice seeks to optimise the efficient delivery of patient care, standardize patient experiences in an inconsistent setting and enhances patient safety performances through design. The PhD by practice is sponsored by the Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and supported by NHS East Riding of Yorkshire (NHS ERY).
The PhD is participatory and proposes a refined theoretical model to achieve its objectives: a strategy- system- experience- product continuum. Qualitative and quantitative methods have: identified variance in the nursing bags used in practice; captured the presence of MRSA inside and on bags; applied Lego Serious Play to envision aspirational products; analogous case studies determining the discrete attributes of world-class services delivered in confined spaces and luxury travel products; captured workflow using link analysis of simulated treatments; determined the efficacy of hand-cleaning techniques; evaluated of design forms using UV analysis to enhance the effectiveness hand-cleaning; heuristic evaluations informing design decisions: stakeholder presentations, international design competitions and industry opinion.
Analytical, creative and experimental collaborative practices have contributed to the co-creation of a world-class nursing bag fit for the challenges of the 21st century. Validation workshops have verified that the new bag reshapes the way home healthcare is delivered, experienced and accepted: increases clinical efficiency through modularity, standardises the patient’s service experience and delivers economic benefits to the commissioners of home healthcare services.

Item control for Repository Staff only: