DESIGN OF A SUMMARY SCREEN FOR AN ICU PATIENT DATA MANAGEMENT-SYSTEM

The paper describes a used-centred design for the summary screen of a computerised lCU patient data management system (PDMS). The screen als o forms the resting state display, or default screen, and provides the principal navigation tool to other functionality within the system. T he design process identified the most frequent potential users of this screen to be the nurses. Their tasks and the information resources re quired to perform them were analysed. The analysis identified that the nurses' main task of planning and implementing patient care required an awareness of a set of physiological parameters which provided an ov erview of the patient's general condition. Novel formats are proposed for displaying the trends in physiological parameters and these have b een incorporated into a proposed screen design. These display formats have been evaluated by ICU nurses; they were adjudged to be clear, rel evant, easy to learn and simple to use. Nurses considered the content of the screen, and the display formats used, to be suitable for: maint aining an awareness of a patient's state during routine patient manage ment.