As part of a 3-week project, my team and I created a simulation-based medical training system that helps nurses learn how to correctly apply electrocardiogram (ECG) leads to a patient's torso by using both visual and tactile guidance.
The motivation for this project came from a student-generated pitch that aimed to solve the problem of alarm fatigue in hospital settings. After 10 interviews with individuals affected by alarm fatigue (including nursing students, physical therapists, Air Force pilots, and EMS personnel) and several surveys, we pivoted our approach. The new problem was that nurses are not properly trained to apply ECG leads, and improper application can lead to inaccurate readouts and false alarms that contribute to alarm fatigue. This led us to answer the question: How might we reduce the number of misapplied EKG leads in hospital settings?
With only three weeks to approach this problem and the nature of this course as a hands-on approach to human-centered design, we avoided approaches that would require significant software development. Instead, we rapidly prototyped simulation methods to train nurses to properly place the ECG leads on a patient’s torso.
After testing with users, our final design incorporated a setting to display lights on the spots where the nurses needed to place the leads, and another set that had the nurses using leads with magnets on the bottoms to match with magnets placed inside of the torso. This two-step approach allowed nurses to practice with visual and tactile guidance.
