NurseCare: Design and 'In-The-Wild' Evaluation of a Mobile System to Promote the Ergonomic Transfer of Patients

Abstract

Nurses are frequently required to transfer patients as part of their daily duties. However, the manual transfer of patients is a major risk factor for injuries to the back. Although the Kinaesthetics Care Conception can help to address this issue, existing support for the integration of the concept into nursing-care practice is low. We present NurseCare, a mobile system that aims to promote the practical application of ergonomic patient transfers based on the Kinaesthetics Care Conception. NurseCare consists of a wearable and a smartphone app. Key features of NurseCare include mobile accessible instructions for ergonomic patient transfers, in-situ feedback for the risky bending of the back, and long-term feedback. We evaluated NurseCare in a nine participant 'in-the-wild' evaluation. Results indicate that NurseCare can facilitate ergonomic work while providing a high user experience adequate to the nurses' work domain, and reveal how NurseCare can be incorporated in given practices.