Abstract
Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) are high cognitive-demanding environments, in which clinical staff and patients are exposed to a great level of sensory stress, mainly produced by sounding events. Due to a prolonged exposure to this soundscape, NICU inhabitant’s wellbeing and their task compliance is negatively affected by the alarm fatigue.
The Design Framework for Audible Alarms is applied for the purpose of obtaining a first full picture of the NICU system, identifying the main sound events, and categorizing them in terms of criticality, informativeness and compliance. To complete the system overview, qualitative data retrieved from nurses and reviewed literature is processed through Human Centered Design and service analysis tools. The results are improved and tested during focus group sessions and service prototype techniques.
As a result of this collaborative approach, an innovative communication system between nurse and alarm is provided as a solution to ensure informativeness and task compliance within a favorable work soundscape.
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Sanz-Segura, R., Pérez, E.M., García de Paredes, I. (2023). A Design-Based Thinking for Alarm Use and Management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In: Gerbino, S., Lanzotti, A., Martorelli, M., Mirálbes Buil, R., Rizzi, C., Roucoules, L. (eds) Advances on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Manufacturing IV. JCM 2022. Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15928-2_22
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