Under the guidance of Honeywell, students devise ways to make nurses’ lives easier

Choose a problem and design a technical solution. A banal phrase that hides a huge amount of work and potential dead ends. How not to get lost in them and how to come up with a successful product that will benefit its user is taught to third-year industrial design students at the BUT. They are mentored by experts from Honeywell, who this time assigned the students to work in the healthcare sector. The traditional series of workshops is being held at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering for the sixth time.

"We started by visiting the University Hospital Brno with the students, meeting the nurses and asking them about their work: how they work, what they like and don´t like. We want to help them make the workflow simpler, faster, smoother, and easier. The nurses were pleased that someone cares and asks what they want to improve, they are looking forward to seeing the ideas. For us, the meeting was fundamental because none of us had ever done the job of a nurse, so we could only imagine what it entailed. Insight into the work of the user of the final product is crucial," explains Honeywell designer Tanguy Prevot.

Students could choose the problem in the health care sector they wanted to solve. The entire third year of industrial design students, consisting of about 15 future bachelors, then divided into three teams. "One group is solving the problem of digitizing the medical record so that we don't force nurses to abandon the traditional paper-based method while still getting the benefits of digital communication. The other team is addressing the issue of preparing and administering medication: making sure the patient gets the right medication in the right amount and at the right time is their big responsibility. The third team focuses on communication with the patient," says David Škaroupka from the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design, who organises the workshops with the company.

At one of the tables, the aforementioned third team is discussing their design. "We are solving the problem of the psychological burden of nurses and the psychological discomfort of patients at the same time. The aim is that nurses would have a better overview of the psychological state of patients, which would make their work easier," explains student Filip Novotný. He and his classmates, Adam and Olga, agree that they find the workshop useful in that they work through the topic comprehensively: from meeting nurses, to choosing a problem and solving it. And although they already have sketches and drafts on the table in front of them, it is clear that the art is just the icing on the cake.

„One thing we have learned from nurses is that there are many reasons why a patient would call a nurse by pressing the button: am I bored, am I angry, am I in pain or have I fallen on the floor? They don´t know to what level they need to rush and they don´t know what or whoom they will need to help them to solve the problem," Prevot confirms the pitfalls of communication between patients and hospital staff.

Being closer

The health care assignment was not given to the students by accident. "Healthcare is one of the industries we're focusing on at Honeywell right now. We have a team in Brno that is dedicated to the topic and still has huge potential for growth. For example, we offer and develop communication devices between patients and staff, we also deal with the digitalization of processes and their integration into the hospital's operating system, and the third area we are currently working on in Brno is telemedicine," explains Tomas Szaszi from the Brno office, who serves as Honeywell's Strategy Leader for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

You can find out more at the FME web site

Author: Faculty of Mechanical Engeneering