Increasing nurse job satisfaction: Shaping future experiences in a post-merger neonatal intensive care department by using the Design Thinking methodology

In 2018, both of Amsterdam’s academic hospitals(VUmc & AMC) officially merged into the Amsterdam UMC. As part of thismerger two neonatal Intensive care units (NICU) are merging as well. Thisproject aims to increase the job satisfaction of NICU nurses in thispost-merger department. TheNICU nurse A neonatal intensive care unit nurse treats premature borninfants as young as 24 weeks after the pregnancy. Besides nursing they guideparents through this emotional and unstable first phase of parenthood. Largerproblem There is a global nurse shortage and this is also noticed atboth NICU departments. Attending this issue is even more urgent now sincemergers are often associated with higher job dissatisfaction and higher staffturnover rates (Martin, 2008). Designproblem Job satisfaction is globally considered to have a pivotalrole in nurse turnover and the quality of care for patients. (Lu, 2019). At this moment there is no active pursuit toincrease nurse job satisfaction at the Amsterdam UMC. This leads to thefollowing design problem: Howcan design thinking (empathize,define, ideate, prototype and test) be used todefine and shape future employee experiences in order to improve jobsatisfaction in a post-merger NICU department? Design research (empathize) A NICU nurse profileof ten work values isestablished. These values are then compared to the organizations core values.Furthermore the different work cultures of both NICU groups are explored. Design goal (define) The value ‘rewards me’is fulfilled the least well while being perceived as relatively important bythe nurses. Therefore the designgoal is: Improving the NICU nursing staff’s feeling of being rewarded for workrelated efforts in order to increase their overall job satisfaction. A future experience map (ideate) To define and shape future NICU nurse experiences, a future employee experience map is made. Promising solutions are also placed in theemployee experience map. Boost (prototype) One concept in the future experience mapis prototyped and tested. This concept is the ‘Boost’ concept which aims atimproving employees wellbeing by facilitating a short personal moment away fromall stimuli during a workday. At the VUmc the concept is prototyped. Walls andceilings are covered with blankets and a massage chair, exercise area andreading corner are created. Promising results (test) For three weeks the Boost concept is piloted in the VUmc. Compared to the zeromeasurement a small but positive increase is observed. This data combined withthe desirability of the conceptshows that the boost concept has the potential for increasing jobsatisfaction. Recommendation Although more measurements are needed the Boost concept shows the potential toincrease job satisfaction. Many more ideas are mapped in the future experiencemap. This leads to the following final recommendation: Combine the future employee experience map with a design thinking mindset (empathize,define, ideate, prototype, test) to realize many incremental gains in nurse jobsatisfaction in order to fight the nurse shortage issue.Design for Interactio