Designing Family-Centered Aids for the Intensive Care Unit
Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA, ACM, (2019)Poster.Abstract
Family member involvement has been shown to be key to the well-being and recovery of patients in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but they often find themselves overwhelmed and in an emotionally heightened state. ICU care teams, especially nurses, are typically considered to be in the best position to help and provide support to family members of patients. However, the heavy workload, lack of time, and personal interaction styles can make it difficult for them to be receptive to family member needs. To understand how current aids in the ICU are used and the challenges associated with them, we conducted 22 interviews with both family members and the care team. We also created prototypes of family-centered aids through a co-design session to reveal the opportunities that emerge for technology to facilitate family member support in the ICU without adding additional burdens on the care team.