Creating Awareness: Reimagining the Badge Buddy
Being diagnosed with and surviving non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of twelve has driven my interest in pediatric cancer philanthropy and the way leadership and design plays a role in large life disruptions like cancer.
For my research capstone, I investigated the Education Service Department at Children's Health in Plano, Texas working directly with Education Service Representative, Brooke Soard. I set out to find a way to design a better environment, service or product for young, long-term stay patients.
The Problem.
"How Might We Improve the Education Service Experience for Extended Stay Pediatric Patients within Public Hospitals?"
The Process.
Define
Understand
Imagine
Refine
Make
Test
Tell
Define
Define
Constraints
In the course of my investigation into the educational experiences of pediatric hospital settings, I encountered several complex layers necessitating a focused approach to scope definition.
1. Student Researcher
First and foremost, my position as a student inherently limited access to extensive resources, constraining the breadth and depth of the research that could be undertaken.
2. Healthcare Institution Regulations
Moreover, the challenge of engaging with large healthcare institutions, such as hospitals, was magnified by my individual capacity to navigate their complex structures and protocols.
3. Ethical Considerations and Human Subject Research
Furthermore, a significant limitation arose from the ethical considerations associated with human subjects research, particularly when involving vulnerable populations. The stringent regulations set forth by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) concerning human subject protection severely restricted my ability to directly engage with pediatric cancer patients. This constraint was crucial, as it underscored the ethical imperative to safeguard the well-being and privacy of these individuals, thereby limiting direct insights into their educational experiences within the hospital setting.
Defining my Area of Opportunity
Confronted with constraints such as limited resources, institutional collaboration challenges, and ethical barriers to directly engaging pediatric patients, my research underwent a strategic shift in focus.
Moving away from studying the patients' experiences directly, I instead explored the role of those providing and facilitating educational services within pediatric hospitals.
This pivot, grounded in the hypothesis that the quality of patient education is intrinsically linked to the facilitators' efficiency and engagement, aimed to investigate how improvements in support for these educators could indirectly enhance patient experiences.
By adopting a top-down perspective, my research concentrated on the educational department's team, exploring avenues through which design thinking could enhance their operational efficiency and effectiveness. The objective was to identify opportunities where thoughtful design interventions could significantly impact the quality of education service delivery, ultimately benefiting the pediatric patients indirectly yet substantially.
Understand
Understand
Since I defined my audience as the Education Department, I began this phase with customized design research methods in order to gain a deep understanding of the education landscape, the specifics of the team, and the current delivery systems.
Research Methods
Secondary Research
I gathered a plethora of research from academic journals, magazines, published demographic research, internal research such as various hospitals strategic plans and government records.
Interviews
8 hours
To gain a holistic understanding I interviewed nurses across the country, hospital faculty, hospital leadership, and local non-profits who specialize in education within the context of healthcare.
Day-in-the-Life
November 15th, 2022
8 am - 3pm
I had the opportunity to shadow Brooke Soard, the Education Department Head, at Children's Health Plano. I was able to note her interactions with the staff, patients, and other hospital members. I loved this because I was able to deeply understand who they are, what they do, and what they need to make their lives better.
Mapping
I create patient journey maps, ecosystem maps and care maps in order to visualize and comprehend certain touch points between the patient, hospital, and education department.
Refine
Refine
This stage is where I synthesized all of the qualitative data I had gathered through my research methods and refining the direction of the project. This is what I learned:
Research Themes
1. Lack of Collaboration
The lack of integration between department divisions, facility departments, and parents/guardians/patients cause a breakdown of information sharing and incomplete holistic services provided for the patient, often meaning that the patient is left without timely assistance or required/needed services beyond mandated timeframes.
2. Lack of Awareness
The staff within the hospital is unaware of the services available to the patients and, therefore, are unable to get patients to the correct departments or are unable to help them understand that they have these services available at all.
3. Lack of Information
The lack of information about the School Services Department has also meant that many incorrectly assume that education specialists are from Dallas or Plano Independent School Districts, rather than hospital staff working as liaisons to bridge the communication and understanding of off-campus school services available for long-term stays.
Imagine
Imagine
This stage houses a specific space and time for brainstorming about what could take shape to help the project that accounts for all previously gathered information and evidence. This is where I started to think about potential solutions that are rooted in my research themes.
From my secondary and primary research findings I knew I needed to design a prototype that would:
Provide a design that would allow the school services department to be known across the Children’s Health campus.
Include basic information and instructions for other staff members or patient families within the hospital.
Easily adapt into the current structure and system within the school services department and Children’s Health Plano at large.
I started brainstorming several ideas that met this design criteria and that could be easily integrated into the current system at Children's. I recalled from my personal experience and my primary research, the culture of the "badge buddy system".
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Hospital badges serve multiple purposes: they help patients recognize healthcare staff, assist nurses in remembering important details, and enable staff to express their personality, fostering a connection with patients. Additionally, some badges feature therapeutic elements, such as games like "I Spy," which can distract and ease patient anxiety during medical procedures.
As I brainstormed this direction, I wanted to make sure that the school services department would be easily identified as a part of the Children’s Health system. I also began looking into wayfinding visual identifiers for informational signage which indicated my design needed to include universally understood icons, contrasted colors, and readable font.
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Make
Make
Test
Test
&
By testing what we make and not just making it, we are able to learn and iterate on the prototype before we give a final deliverable. This phase can be the most nerve-wracking and yet the most rewarding. My goal with this phase was not to prove that our design worked, but rather to see what I could learn from what I put into the world.
Prototype
In my initial design of the badges, I intentionally left blank spaces on the backs. This was to facilitate a participatory design activity, allowing Brooke and her team to add the information they considered most relevant and useful for the badges.
Participatory Design Activity
While first the badge succeeded in raising awareness of the department's presence, it became clear that users needed more explicit guidance on why they might need to reach out to school services. The feedback highlighted that while awareness is a necessary first step, it is insufficient without a clear understanding of how to interact with the department.
Final Design
Through another brainstorm session the idea of a “tool kit” emerged which would indicate when and how to contact school services. This would create awareness not only around who they are but what they do and the various ways they support patients and their families.
Design Principals
Through this research project I was able to identify three key design principles to be included in future work pertaining to education services and Children’s Health Plano.
Incremental Innovation: Instead of designing something to change the current system and structure of Children’s Health, design within it.
Clarity and simplicity: The design should be clear and simple, with the use of easy-to-understand language, simple graphics, and intuitive navigation to help users quickly find the information they need. The design should also be consistent across different formats, such as brochures, posters, and digital displays.
Stakeholder Involvement: any designs should include feedback across multiple departments to have a holistic understanding of key gaps. When we designed the badge, we walked floor to floor to ask everyone involved for their input.
Tell
Tell
After executing the Water Cooler Community LinkedIn Group prototype, our design team laid out guiding design principles and actionable design recommendations for the client to consider and implement.
Our Design Recommendations
Invest in a Digital Community
Investing in a digital experience would provide Water Cooler organizations and community members with increased access to needed information to build new relationships together.
Leverage Digital to Complement In-Person
Leveraging digital to complement in-person programs and spaces would add to a holistic community experience and set clear structures for participation.
Providing a consistency of hospitality
Providing a consistency of hospitality over time will deepen trust between management and community members and increase adoption of services.