Shift Handovers
by Health Design Lab
Graduation year: 1925
Vancouver Coastal Health and Emily Carr collaborated on methods to reduce communication errors at the point of nursing shift changes.
Currently, the patient handoff procedure at each shift change is not standarized and involves the exchange of large amounts of written, verbal and statistical information within a brief period of time. The combination of information overload and short timeframes within a high stress environment creates an environment where mistakes can happen. This problem was presented to third year communication design students and provided an opportunity to not only work with an industry partner outside of the classroom, but to also explore the rapidly expanding field of communication design beyond the traditional graphic design domains of branding, stationary and print publication. Indeed, many students ventured into the realm of interaction design when exploring tablet-based solutions for the shift change handoff problem. Vancouver Coastal Health and Emily Carr University have a history of design collaboration, and this project further advances a partnership that both generates design solutions for the healthcare industry and learning outcomes for students.