The first step in the group’s effort was to delve into the designed needs assessment and outline our project goals with our sponsors. For this to occur, we met with leaders from Synapse, the maker of the SNAP sensors, and Vanderbilt hospital physicians and researchers on two occasions to further define the components of this project. The first meeting included brainstorming and highlighting several directions the project could go. Next, in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the needs of the Vanderbilt NICU, the second meeting, where these ideas were narrowed and refined, took place in the NICU itself. This included a tour of several pods where newborns are cared for and the stations at which the nurses and physicians conviene.
With a thorough understanding of the clients needs and the functional inadequacies of the Vanderbilt NICU, the group decided upon a specific target to complete for design day. Dr. Walsh, neonatologist, described huddle meetings that occur twice a day to discuss each patient and their whereabouts, but the location of each patient was often reported based on nurse or physician memory, causing meetings to be longer than necessary. Synapse and the Vanderbilt team decided to target their energy on the tracking of patients between pods and as they leave and enter the NICU areas because of surgeries or other happenings. The next step will be to interview nurses who take part in these huddle planning meetings to more accurately understand the ways in which this product can reduce the workload of the charge nurse and her or her assistants in the role tracking babies.