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School of 1 9





The Original D. School Design Process:
Pager System for Lindsay Knox/Nurses
Dijon Andrews
Thomas Ferrell
L & N STEM Academy












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The field of nursing has been a very well respected, credible community. In fact, most
states have very well equipped nursing schools and programs that include an abundance of
hands-on activities in order that students might get a better feel to study into this field. Although
Thomas and I both want to become a little more advanced in the medical field than being nurses,
we each thought that we shouldn't discredit the field, at least not until we know all there is to
know about it. As a result we ended up choosing to direct our full, devoted attention to this
profession with hopes of gaining more knowledge in the nursing field.
To begin with, there are various types of nurses. Nurses are defined as a man or woman
who are trained to care for the sick or infirm. They typically work in hospitals or in doctors'
offices. They hold the responsibilities that include: giving shots, instructing physical exams,
assisting doctors, and many other tasks (Oxford Dictionary of English). Nurses have a very busy
job and performing it can be stressful. Having learned a little bit more about this career, we set
out to begin our project. We used the D. School Design process in hopes addressing an issue
easily. The first step we used was empathy.
In order to improve the field of nursing, we knew that we would have to hear from a
nurse himself/herself. After constructing a list of questions and getting a little background
knowledge of the field, we set out to find the right interviewee to assist our needs. Once we went
through mutual friends, whom were not beneficial to us, we quickly realized that we could have
had a great candidate the entire time. Coming to our senses, we had forgotten that our STEM 3
teacher, Jeff Knox, is married to a nurse. We talked to him about our issue and asked if he could
link us to his wife. He asked her if she would be willing to help us out, and immediately she
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stepped up to the plate. From that point on, Mrs. Lindsay Knox became our official contacted
professional.
Lindsay Knox has been a nurse for twelve years. She has held numerous positions as a nurse
over the years. Being that she is not a rookie to this field, she has been around to witness how
much nursing has changed over the years. When it came time for the over the phone interview,
she opened up to us about all of her issues and concerns. For instance, we asked her was she
aware that many nurses are behind on the advancement of technology that has been introduced
into the field, and how she felt about it. Her response was, "That's completely accurate and agree
with that statement. It can be stressful and sometimes I am simply not aware of it." She also went
on to say that she feels that in a couple of years nurses need to switch from doing paper
documentation to electronically doing these task in order to save time, not only for themselves,
but in order the patients can be seen and treated quicker. We asked her more questions that you
can see below. Her responses are italicized:
We noticed that a lot of nurses are still somewhat behind on the newer wave of technology.
How do you feel about this?
I agree. It can be very stressful at times because I over time I've been in positions when I had
to use a certain device, but I didn't know how. I simply wasn't aware of it.
Would you rather use electronic or paper systems? Why?
Although paper and pen is more comfortable for myself as well as many others, I much rather
have electronic systems. The reason I say this is due to the fact that we are coming to a point in
time were paper is slowly, but surely fading away. I much rather shift now, then wait a couple
more years or months to be further behind.
Do you find paper efficient enough or do you think having computers or tablets would be a
faster way to improve the time spent dealing with documentation, etc. ?
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I think having computers and tablets would save a lot of time spent dealing with those things.
However, it would essentially start off very slow because all of us (nurses) would have to get use
to using the devices. Paper is just as efficient, but who wants to write down all these things when
they can easily be typed up?

Cane you explain some staff issues that you have experienced within your career?
The only one I can think of is a lack of communication. When I worked in the hospitals, I
noticed that nurses, and technicians have more patients. I have also seen them deal with patients
longer than a doctor in some cases.
What do you think caused this lack of communication?
It was definitely the fact that there was no bridge, or messenger between administration and
the nurses. No one ever really knew if I was swamped treating and taking care of a patient who
really needed the extra assistance, yet I still had to deal with say 6 other patients that each
needed simple task done.
Do you think these issues happen because of lack leadership from a manager or supervisor?
I would not say that it was a lack of leadership, I think that the hospital was just innocently
unaware of the events taking place.
How do you think staff issues should be improved?
I think they should hire more nurses, or get some type of interns that could help do simple
things like checking a patient's blood pressure or writing documentation. I would be willing to
start some new system that would help benefit these issues as well.

What about the safety on your job, have you ever had a moment where you didn't feel safe?
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Personally, no. I've always felt pretty safe. Now granted, I every now and then think
about times when things could go left. But it didn't. Most of the times patients are just combated
or defensive because they are confused and in pain. I just try to calm them down and get them to
trust in me.

Do you think hospital's/offices should improve their safety?
Yes. Although I've never felt unsafe, I do feel like is isn't addressed as well as it should be.
With all of things going on in the world, I feel that going to a conference twice a year doesn't
cover what could be everyday issues in other states or cities. So addressing it better would be
very beneficial.

Last, but not least I would to discuss the ethical, unethical, and professional challenges you
face while dealing with patients. In an article, I read that it's critical for nurses to all do their jobs
and actually set examples, or being "role models" to other nurses. I wanted to know if you've had
a complex with this theory.
Yes I do actually. I have challenged many ethical and unethical decisions. HIPPA would
have to be the toughest part because sometimes I can become attached to a patient and want to
vent about it to someone, but if can't discuss the patient's information to anyone other than that
particular patient. Also, I noticed that gossiping about patients has become a rather trendy
issues. I find that it's unprofessional and very inappropriate so I don't do it.
Another issue would have to be HIPPA versus Social Networks. I can't post anything own
my Facebook without double checking to make sure that this could potentially become a lawsuit.
[She referenced an incident in which a woman was sued because she posted something on her
Facebook that the family of patient considered offensive and sued a hospital]. Also, using my
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email and opening my attachments can be risky. I found it very tricky that I can't do a lot of
personal things because it risk hackers hacking into our systems and stealing patient
information. Which would ultimately lead up to a lawsuit.
Once the interview was done, Thomas and I moved on to narrow down the list or problem Mrs.
Knox gave us. We did this by using the next step of the D. School Design Process define.
Looking at the list, we had a difficult time choosing a topic to narrow our focus on. At
first we had chosen to deal with the social media situation, but quickly realized that we didn't
have enough time to work out all of its kinks. Turning down that idea, we thought about making
improvements to the email system at Mrs. Lindsay's job, so that she'd be able to open and view
attachments as she pleases without the risk she would take; however, we realized many
informational technological companies make systems like this. Putting in hours of thought and
consideration for nurses and Mrs. Knox, we finally reached beneficial improvement and was able
to come up with a point of view statement. It is as follows:
Lindsay Knox (nurses) need(s) a pager system at her (their) job(s) because she (nurses) can
become overwhelmed, overworked, and tedious. She also feels that there is no line of
communication set between her (them) and her (their) boss/administration.
As a result, we had to move to the third step of the D. School Process Ideate.
For our ideation method, we took the traditional approach of brainstorming ideas. We sat
in one of our app rooms and wrote down any and every idea that came to mind using a
whiteboard and expo marker. Eventually, we went through the list tweaking our ideas. See Image
1 to see a picture of a brainstorming method.

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Image 1

Next, we moved on to step four of the design process prototype.
The creation of our prototype was a very tricky process and we had to find a creative way
to make the pager. The prototype we have created and will be initiated into Mrs.Lindsay's
workplace is a pager system. The concept behind this system is that nurses will be able to
communicate to the nurses station and their administration. It can also be used for administration
to use to page nurses who are available when they're needed.
There will be a base server that connects to all of the pagers. This server will look very
similar to a wireless internet router. It can connect to a desktop or laptop, which is able to view
the nurses current status. The pagers themselves come in two colors, black or white. They are
about 2 inches long and 3 inches wide. It has a 1 1/2 inch wide , 3/4 inch long display screen.
This screen displays a clock that shows the time unless someone from the nurses station pages a
message to a nurse. Underneath the display screen are three functional buttons to display the
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status of the nurse. The first button will be labeled as a busy button. This button indicates that a
nurse is busy with a patient whose being admitted or treated. Below this button will be button
labeled as an available button. It indicates that a nurse is available to be placed with a patient or
fill in a slot when she is needed. The last functional button is a not available button. This is to be
used when nurses are on a break, gone to lunch, or for something of that nature.
Once we designed the prototype, we figured that pager should be tested. Thus, we moved
on to the final step according to D. School Test.
For the final step of this project, Thomas and I will test out the system in our school. We
will watch and observe how it works on our faculty and staff to see if it is at all as effective as we
think it should be. Once we feel that it is up to par, we will give it to Mrs.Lindsay. Mrs. Lindsay
will then test it out amongst her job and give us there feed back. Hopefully, she is satisfied with
it, but if not we will go back to step four or step three to make the adjustments needed to
accommodate her/their complaints.
Having done all the steps of the D. School Design Process, we hope to obtain our goal
and improve not only Mrs.Knox's job, but other nurses as well. We believe that if we could get
this approved by a nurse of twelve years, then other nurses should hop on the bandwagon of
loving this pager system.





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Works Cited
Definition of nurse in English. (n.d.). nurse: definition of nurse (1) in Oxford dictionary.
Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/
american_english/nurse?q=Nurses