The Caregiver Kisok

Improving the Caregiver and Family Experience at St. Joseph’s Lifecare Centre through Design Thinking

Overview

Summary

This project was an assignment for the course UX200: Design Thinking II.

St. Joseph’s Lifecare Centre in Brantford partnered with Laurier’s User Experience program to improve the experience of different population groups in long-term care (LTC). My team was tasked with finding an innovative solution to enrich the experiences of caregivers and family members of residents at St. Joseph's Lifecare Centre in Brantford.

Our solution is to implement a touchscreen kiosk system to facilitate caregiver empowerment, facilitate ease of access to information, and mitigate the communication pain points identified during research sessions.

Tools

Jira
Figma
Optimal Workshop

Role

UX Researcher
Assistant UI Designer
Editor
Presenter

Timeline

Jan to April 2024

The Problem

Finding an innovative solution to enrich the experiences of caregivers and family members of residents at St. Joseph's Lifecare Centre.

The Users

Caregivers

‍Individuals designated by a resident or their substitute decision-maker to provide essential support or assistance. Caregivers can be categorised as either unpaid, including family members, friends, and significant others, or paid, such as hired caregivers, companions, and translators.

Family

Individuals related to residents of long-term care (LTC) homes who play a crucial role in enhancing residents' quality of life by providing similar forms of support as caregivers.

Preliminary Goals

  • Alleviate caregiver and family anxiety or guilt associated with entrusting the care of their loved one to others
  • Ease concerns about whether the unique needs of their loved ones will be adequately met
  • Provide caregivers with the means to monitor the well-being of their loved ones effectively

Research Methods

Competitive Analysis

To begin, we examined direct and indirect competitors of St. Joes to identify effective practices use in the industry or related industries.

Direct Competitors

  • John Noble Home
  • Charlotte Villa
  • Brierwood Gardens
  • Sienna Senior Living

Indirect Competitors

  • SickKids
  • Education & Child Care
  • Mental Health & Rehabilitation Centres
  • Correctional Facilities - Prisons
  • Military

Best Practices Identified

Family Education or Informational Packages

Play an important role in acquainting families who are new to LTC by providing them with helpful information and educational resources, especially if the resident has a particular medical condition.

Newsletter and Bulletin Boards

Are common communication channels to support caregivers and family. LTC homes typically have online or physical newsletters or bulletin boards that provide caregivers and family with news or updates regarding the facility. These are important for keeping caregivers and families up to date with the operations of the LTC homes in general.

Family Councils

Are typically made up of a group of LTC residents’ family members who ensure families’ voices are represented in a LTC home’s decision-making processes. Family councils act as the unifying voice that advocates for all the families and they also provide extra support such as education, peer support, or event planning to other caregivers or families.

Family Events

Create opportunities for caregivers and families to connect with their loved ones. Such types of events allow them to check in on how their loved ones are doing and spend quality time with them.

Interviews

9 interviews were conducted to facilitate one-on-one conversations with caregivers and family members about their thoughts, emotions, and experiences. We designed an interview guide to explore the different aspects of being a caregiver and/or family member at St. Joseph’s.

Interview Guide

Interview questions pertained to:

  • Facility

    • Onboarding
    • Staff interactions
    • Feelings about St. Joe's

  • Pain Points

    • Caregiver support
    • Switching from St. Joe's
    • Comparing other LTC

  • Communication

    • Methods of communication
    • Communicating protocol
    • Decision-making processes

Focus Group

One focus group was conducted with 5 caregivers at St. Joseph’s to facilitate group discussion. We designed our focus group to consist of an emotional response card activity to explore further the emotional aspects of being a caregiver and to facilitate open discussion to gather a breadth of different thoughts and insights.

Observational Study

One observational study was conducted following the interviewee/ interviewer method at St. Joseph’s. This study was done to gather insights about the physical environment of St. Joseph’s and to see how family members and caregivers interact with it. We designed “walk and talk” type observational studies that allowed family members and caregivers to guide us around the LTC home and discuss their experiences.

Research Findings

To analyse our research’s findings we conducted a thematic analysis for each research method used. We organized our findings by translating user insights into interpretive and descriptive codes and organising those codes into themed groups.

Research Themes

Comunication

  • Not being heard or getting hold of important contacts
  • Being pased from one staff member to another
  • Concerns and questions not addressed

Staff

  • Short-staffing concerns
  • Frequent staff changes
  • Issues building caregiver-staff relationship

Feelings and Emotions

  • Difficulty relinquishing care, feelings of guilt
  • Struggles in being an "expert" in LTC
  • Ensuring proper care

Artifacts

Our most important artifact we created from our research were our personas. These personas represent an archetype that most user’s needs and pain points fall into.

Personas

Service Blueprint

Another artifact that came from our research was a service blueprint of a caregiver’s typical visit to St. Joseph’s.

Jobs-To-Be-Done

These jobs-to-be-done are a synthesis of our user’s goals and needs, from our research.

When I visit St. Joseph’s LTC home, I want to check up on my husband’s hygiene and the state of his room. So I can be assured that he is receiving high-quality care and feels cared for.

When I visit St. Joseph’s to see my grandma, I want to see the familiar faces of the nurses and personal support workers. So that I can get to know them better and build a positive relationship with the people caring for her.

When I raise a concern about an issue with my husband’s room, I want to hear acknowledgement from the staff that it will be fixed. So I can be assured he is being properly cared for.

When I am away, I want to receive useful information about what is going on with my mom’s care. So I can stay updated about how she is doing.

Ideation

Constraints

Many pain points came from a lack of funding which was not within the scope of our project so we were limited to low-cost solutions that alleviate the problems created by a lack of funding.

Idea: Caregiver Kiosk

The goal of the Caregiver-Kiosk solution is to centralise as much of the commonly accessed, needed or helpful information for caregivers and family members to access through the system.

Primary Functions

  • Daily staff list
  • Care plan access
  • Contacy directory
  • FAQ
  • Roles list
  • Meals and activites

Secondary Function

  • Digital COVID-19 screener

Iteration

Low Fidelity Prototype - Storyboard Walkthrough

In this low-fidelity testing phase, we developed screens for the kiosk that demonstrated the type of information available at the kiosk; then created storyboards that highlight the use of the kiosk’s features. After walking participants through the storyboard we asked follow-up questions regarding the process.

For participant recruitment, we looked for candidates who:

  • Hold the role of caregiver or family, OR have held the role of caregiver or family
  • Have a loved one at St. Joseph's Long-Term Care (LTC)

Study Aim

  • Validation
  • Feedback
  • Information needs

Participants

  • 5 Caregivers

Methods

  • Storyboard Walkthrough
  • Post-test questions

Screens

  • Home screen for caregivers to sign in
  • COVID-19 screener
  • Today's Care Team
  • Care Plan
  • Care Map
  • Meals
  • Activities
  • FAQs

Medium Fidelity Prototype

The medium fidelity prototype was created using Figma and displayed on an iPad to simulate a kiosk. Using the medium fidelity prototype users can quickly perform a digital COVID-19 screening and securely access their resident’s information.
Details and features of the prototype will be discussed in the high fidelity solution.

Medium Fidelity - Usability Testing

Taking account of the changes from the low-fidelity testing, the medium-fidelity testing included the kiosk interface that was presented in the form of an iPad. The usability testing included four tasks that tested to see if the caregivers were able to navigate the interface and to see what changes needed to be made.

Improvements

Outbreak Notice

  • Colour, more eye-catching
  • Add relevant details
  • Order of appearance

Before

After

Home Screen

  • Accessibility options
  • Help Button
  • Refined labels and descriptions
  • Drop shadows to indicate interactivity

Before

After

Button Design

  • Button redesign to indicate interactivity

Before

After

Information Architecture - Tree Testing

To better understand our users' mental models and evaluate whether the system that was designed matches their understanding, tree testing was conducted to understand how users expect information to be organised and to test the effectiveness of our kiosk’s navigation system.

Study Aim & Methods

  • Test navigation labels
  • 2 tasks
  • 7 participants

Results

  • 93% overall study success
  • Suggestion: rework label descriptions

High Fidelity Solution

Welcome to the Caregiver Kiosk

Improving Communication Through Caregiver Empowerment

Welcome Screen

The kiosk’s resting screen.

Any notices regarding virus or illness outbreaks will be shown on the resting page.

Users can scan their unique barcode key tag for a quick and secure sign-in.

Barcode Key Tag Mock-up

Digital Screener

Replacement of the Paper COVID-19 Screener.

The kiosk will also have a secondary function as a digital COVID-19 screener or check-in.

Users wanted something in place that would help speed up the screening process.

Home Screen

“Visually clean. I like the contrast between white and black, and the blue is nice”

Care Plan

Replacement of the Paper COVID-19 Screener.

From the kiosk, the user can send a copy of the plan to the reception desk for printing, a cover fax sheet could be used on top to ensure the confidentiality of the care plan is maintained.

A care plan is a summary of their loved ones' care, team, health concerns, symptom management, medications, etc.

“If I printed [the care plan] out I could know that they changed my mom’s catheter.”

Daily Staff List

The staff on shift today taking care of caregiver's loved ones.

Users expressed positive feedback on being able to have a list of the staff currently working with their loved ones.

Users also noted that having a picture of staff was particularly helpful in recognition, especially since staff is often changing and staff badges were not always visible.

Resident Activity Schedule

A schedule of meals and recreational activities for residents.

Information postings for residents' meals and schedules of their activities currently exist but were noted to be scattered and often inaccessible to residents, caregivers, and their family members.

“[The meals section] would be good because my mom won’t remember what she ate today. And with this I can ask her if she liked her oatmeal.”

Frequently Asked Questions

This screen displays a variety of answers to frequently asked questions across different topic areas: facilities, housekeeping, outbreaks, feedback, etc.

Contact Directory

A contact directory is a hub that centralises all the phone numbers, emails, and other means of contacting different individuals or departments within the LTC home.

Video Showcase

Closing Thoughts

Presented our work to our stakeholders in the final presentation competition, got first place and 100/100 on the project.

St. Joesph's asked us to present to their administrative board.

I’m glad to say my team worked very well together and in the end we were successful. I'm proud of the research we performed and the solution we created. I believe our solution effectively addresses the user’s pain points.This was my first ever project where I interviewed actual users in the real world. I learned so much about working to my team’s strengths and the importance of clearly presenting findings to stakeholders.

Contact me!
EmailLinkedIn