Doplor: Artful warnings towards a more silent Intensive Care

The critical care environment has been witnessed to be one that is unsuitable for sleeping in during day time. Auditory disturbances happen approximately every 12 to 15 minutes, and this is preventing patients to get into their deep sleep during for example the nurse's lunch break. Being able to get into deep sleep has been proven to be very useful for recovery, and obtaining it is possible. Five minutes extra between auditory disturbances could already make all the difference. From all different auditive sources of the disturbances, it turned out that the main contributors were speech, incidents and alarms. These contributors mainly seemed to be induced by nurse behavior. When questioning why actually these disturbances were present, it was not the case that nurses deliberately were very loud. On the contrary, they love their job and caring and curing patients. It turned out that the loudness of the nurse could be related back to the same phenomenon as alarm fatigue. As nurses are working in a loud environment continuously, they become unaware of what actions actually cause loud noises. Through psychological theories was also found that nurses do not like to continuously be each other’s point of remark, and they rather not say to each other when they are loud. That is the part where I could help. What was needed within the Intensive Care, was a device that could help get nurses informed about the auditory environment, and whether it has been quieter or louder over the past time. Through multiple rounds of testing, it could be concluded that the best way of getting someone's attention was through visualizations, and when someone wanted more information, there was the need for a written explanation. To describe the loudness of an environment, this could best be done through the hostility of a visualization, and a more distinctive 'loudness-state' could be obtained through adding differences in clarity, color, and speed of such a visualization. All these findings have been included in Doplor, an interactive painting, helping nurses understand the auditory environment a bit better. Doplor listens to the environment by measuring decibels via Quietyme’s sensors, and determines what sort of visualization represents the auditory environment best.Through testing with both students and nurses, a proper understanding and a small effect could be found. Both parties expected themselves to be quieter with Doplor being around, they understood better what the causes of auditory disturbances would be when Doplor showed a loud visualization and lastly, both parties liked Doplor's appearance and would see him as a real helper in quieting down as a team. Even though more testing should be performed to understand the full effect and change of behavior in nurses, it is believed that Doplor could be a great addition in quieting down as a team within the critical care context.Integrated Product Design | Medisig