Urinary Incontinence Alert System for Nurses and Nurse Aids
A device that catches Incontinent events in real time.
The UIAS is a small handheld device that addresses the issue of nighttime incontinent accidents. This easy to use device will be the tool that stops not only the unnecessary night time checks, but potentially saves our elderly from other disastrous accidents. A quick response from caretakers is the key to reducing deadly nighttime falls when incontinent accidents happen.
Jump to...
WHO?
are the users?
WHY?
design this product?
WHAT?
is the solution?
HOW?
well does this meet user needs?
Take a minute, and imagine you just turned 65...
Did you know?
That nearly 10 million people are diagnosed every year with dementia? Confusion and memory loss continue to be the leading cause of many accidents.
Over half of people 65 and older suffer bladder leakage and incontinence. With there being several different types of UI, there are several different factors that can cause an accident.
Over 14 million people, or 1in 4 adults aged 65 and older report falling annually. Falling continues to be the leading cause of injury related death in the elderly.
While you may have some time left, that is not the case for nearly 20% of Americans
Who are the important figures in the Geriatric Care System?
Within the sector of geriatric care, there are many individuals and interactions at play. The goal is to find a single point of tension, discover a solution, and then create a product has a positive domino effect that can help address other needs. The next step was to conduct interviews with each of these players to establish the needs of each individual.
User and Stakeholder Interviews
"What is your experience and concerns when caring for patients with Urinary Incontinence?"
* To respect the requested privacy of certain interview participants, photos will be blurred. All information provided is able to be shared and used within the confines of the project.
Kevin McKay
CEO of Tockwotton Assisted Living
Dr. Nicole Jennings MD
Internal Medicine at FJC Clinic
Karen Feranti
Enrichment Director at Wingate Assisted Living
Micheala McKay
Administrator of Tockwotton Assisted Living
Donna O.
RN at Wingate Assisted Living
- Had family to take care of at home
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-Feels that some of the Urinary Incontinence solutions are expensive.
-Uses Vigil System
-Is interested in patient tracking
-Is hesitant to use cell phones as alerts from past legal problems
-When she worked in the hospital she needed her nurses available for her to do her work.
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-Feels that domestic caregivers are at their limit already, a solution would do well in hospitals and assisted living.
-Did not like the idea of certain alarms or lights in the living quarters.
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- If patients have to go to the bathroom, they may fall at night so we look into fall detection technology.
-Often very busy and split between tasks
-Manages multiple patients
-Families are responsible for providing briefs
“The nurses who help manage incontinent patients are always moving about”
“Some years ago, we use to ask if we would have to stop allowing fluids after a certain time”
“I like using briefs and pads they wick away moisture quickly”
“When my brother had to take care of our mother at home after her hospitalization, he had to stay with her 24/7 because we were worried she would fall."
“We really want to keep our facility feeling more like a home”
FJC Clinic
“For our incontinent residents, we do night checks every 2 hours to see if there has been an accident. We are required to wake them up and then wait to get a verbal confirmation, and then take care of them should they need it”
"For your incontinent residents, what is your nighttime care routines or protocols?"
Donna O.
RN at Wingate Assisted Living
There must be a better solution
User Stories
As a
Nurse, Rn or Aid
I need to
Access simple, easy tools to detect patient incontinence
So that I can
refrain from unnecessarily waking them.
As a
Medical Doctor,
I need
my nurses and aids to be available
So that I can
ensure my patients receive the best care.
As a
Nursing Home CEO
I need to
Find affordable, effective solutions and tools for the needs of my staff and residents
So that I can
grow my care facility to house and treat more elderly patients
User Story Board
Pam finally has the chance to sit down after her first round of check-ins with the patients on her floor. Pam is a nurse at a large nursing home in Narragansett RI where she has worked for the last 5 years.
Pam loves the people she cares for and always tries to be optimistic and energetic around them. However, due to short staffing, Pam gets moved to the night shift, and her tasks and overall work environment changes.
She will have to be managing twice as many residents as well as covering all of the incontinence check-ins. She hates having to unnecessarily wake up her residents every two hours to make sure there has not been an accident. The people she knew to be cheery during the day were often displeased and irate when woken up.
This had begun to strain her relationship with them and she noticed that with several getting poor sleep, their health had also declined. There must be a better solution, checking on patients every 2 hours disrupts their much needed rest and takes up her valuable time.
How might we create a simple, accessible tool to detect Urinary accidents in real time?
Usage of Body Safe Moisture Sensors
AXZON
A B2B company that designs and produces a great variety of moisture and temperature sensors for a large variety of different use cases. Learn More.
Missing Components to AXZON's Report
To address bladder leakage in real time, I first started researching existing moisture sensing technology that could be used on the body. This company, AXZON, had already developed a proposal on this using their product, but upon further investigation, the report had many "holes" . Read the proposal and learn more about Axzon's product and specifications on hardware here.
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No clear specification on the actual alert hardware or interface
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No indication on how the hardware was implemented into the facility
Executing the Design
How do the Nurses Receive the Alert?
After discovering how the Axzon hardware would need to be implemented and its specifications (click here to learn more), it was time to explore how this system would alert it's nurses and aids.
ROOM 201
ROOM 201
PROS:
No hardware required, potentially integration with MRS
CONS:
Requires nurses to be at station. "Nurses constantly move about"
PROS:
Easily on hand, allows free movement about the floor. May not be easily displaced
CONS:
Less space around the neck for other devices
PROS:
Easily on hand, allows free movement about the floor. Familiar product type
CONS:
Could be more easily displaced
Features:
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Would have audible alert
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Method of clipping onto clothing
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Scroll wheel or button interface
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Large legible screen
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Small amount of tasks/ functions
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Use of an LCD display screen
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Small product that can be worn or placed into pocket.
Interface and Actions of the UIAS
Action One: The Alert
The first action the device would have is the alert. In this instance, Resident inside room 402 has immediately had an incontinent accident and their sensor is going off. The nurse hears the alert, and can see which room is going off. After addressing the resident and taking care of them, they can then clear the status of that sensor.
Action 2: Check Reader Status
The second task that can be done on the devices is checking the status of sensors to make sure they are functioning properly. In this instance, room 403's sensor is not connected to the network. The nurse can see this and can attempt reconnection via the device, if this does not work, they can enter room 403 to try to manually reconnect the reader.
User Story Board: The Solution
“Beep Beep” Pam hears e her IASP (Incontinence Alert System Pager) go off, she then knows she is needed to address one of the patients.
She hits the orange button once to silence the alarm sets aside the pile of forms she was able to finish. She checks her IASP and sees the blinking 375, and begins to quickly make her way there.
Knocking and alerting the patient to her presence, she enters and goes to the bed to assist. Once the patient has been successfully cleaned, she places a new adhesive sensor in a new brief for them. She takes a moment to clear the patient alert from her IASP.
She checks that the patient is well and has put on the new brief before letting them return to sleep. Pam is happier she now has a more pleasant experience during these incontinence checks. Only having to wake and address the patients when needed has given her more time to do other tasks and allows her patients more time to have healthy rest.
Measurement and Next Steps
How well did the Product meet the user's needs?
After completing the UI test and creating a scale model of the product, I took the device and presented it to several nurses and med aids to get their feedback. The goal was to check for clarity and ease to use the product, how easily it may be implemented, and if the user had a need for the product. This is what they said!
8.5/10
Average score when asked on a scale from 1 to ten how easy it was to understand the interface. 1 being difficult and unintuitive and 10 being very easy.
5 in 6
Thought that a third function, which gave the nurses the ability to "bump" their alert to another if they were unable to attend, was a good idea.
Rated highly for how accessible and easy the installation could be into their facility.
Hear from Medical Professionals!
Click on the Play button to hear a quick bit of what professionals had to say about the device!
How would you describe the interface? Was it easy or hard to understand?
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Do you think this could be easily implemented into your facility?
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Would you want to use this tool?
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"Being able to help the matter of incontinence is one thing, but addressing the root of why someone might get up at night and fall in the first place is the bigger issue this device is addressing. It's not just saving sleep and underwear, it's saving lives."
Out of Scope and Next Steps
After an overwhelmingly positive response to the product, there were still several points that emerged during interviews that can be considered for the next phase.
Faulty Sensors
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Prepare a protocol for potentially faulty sensors
Sustainability
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Incorporate more sustainable, less disposable methods to the system
Test with Patients
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Bring patients into the ecosystem and get their thoughts on the product
Explore Patient Sharing
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Ability to send alert to another nurse if you’re unable to tend to the patient