Riley Children's hospital

Healthcare Design
Project Overview
My capstone project was a collaboration between the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Riley Children's Hospital and the Visual Communications Department of the Herron School of Art and Design. I worked in collaboration with one other undergraduate student and a number of contacts in the PICU itself including social workers, nurses, and nurse managers. Over the course of eight weeks we gained valuable insights, met with families of patients, and toured the unit in order to get a clear picture of the environment. We identified key areas that could be improved with proper design solutions and reduced the pain points we identified in our research.
My Contributions
While I worked with one other Undergraduate student to collect the research, we created our own separate design solutions based on our findings. After compiling the research, I designed a welcome guide, map, website, packing list, and presentation space at the capstone exhibition.
RESEARCH and Ideation
Pediatric Intensive Care Units are by their nature, chaotic environments. There is high levels of uncertainty and the stakes are often life and death. While many variables are out of the control of the hospital, welcoming families and providing a smooth on-boarding into this new environment is not. That is where good design comes in. We identified seveeral key areas of improvement through our research and interviews.
  • Way finding within the unit
  • Understand roles and responsibilities of providers
  • Helping prepare for extended stays at the unit.
“It’s terrifying for patients and families to be in our unit - studies show families develop PTSD afterwards.”
- Riley Children's Child Life Advocate
“Parents walk right past the front desk when they get here for the first time... they are panicking.”
- Riley Nursing Team Member
The culmination of our research phase resulted in a journey map that outlined the immense emotional turmoil that family members experience when they enter into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. There is a mix of panic and confusion, and often times providers are interacting with them at the lowest point in their lives. While some uncertainty in unavoidable in this instance, I wanted to assist family members with basic questions and ease some of that burden as best as possible. The design artifacts that follow are my best effort to do so.
Design Deliverables
I carefully thought of the structure of  the welcome guide and tried to include the most relevant information based on interview insights with former patients' family members. Some information includes explanations of care rounds, housing options for extended stays, and a glossary of common medical terms for reference. The language barrier was also critical to address as some families speak English as a second language. This prompted me to include side by side translations for English and Spanish.
The packing list was another item informed by research. Two family members of former patients noted the difficulty to adjusting to long stays at the PICU including small details like remembering to bring toiletries, comfortable shoes, and blankets to sleep with. This packing list includes such essentials and is available for download on the website so that family members can prepare for extended stays with their children.
During our first tour of the unit, we noticed the layout of the wing to be confusing. There were multiple staff-only hallways and further inquiry with providers revealed that many family members had gotten lost or walked right past the front desk upon arrival due to the critical situation and heightened emotions. We endavoured to remedy this by providing a map of the unit which parents and family members could reference for a more simplified way finding experience.
The website acted as a repository for information that the patients' family members could access at any time. In addition to having info about the daily care schedule and staff roles, it also included printable PDF resources for families so they could more effectively prepare for their stay.
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