User-Centered Design of a Speech-Based Application to Support Caregivers.

The shortage of skilled nursing personnel is - among other reasons - due to the low attractiveness of the profession, comprising high workloads and atypical working hours. Studies show that speech-based documentation systems increase documentation efficiency and satisfaction of physicians. This paper describes the development process of a speech-based application to support nurses, according to the user-centered design approach. User requirements were collected based on interviews (n=6) as well as observations (n=6) in three institutions and were evaluated by means of qualitative content analysis. A prototype of the derived system architecture was implemented. Based on a usability test (n=3), further potentials for improvement were determined. The resulting application enables nurses to dictate personal notes, share them with colleagues and transmit notes to the existing documentation system. We conclude that the user-centered approach ensures the extensive consideration of the nursing staff's requirements and shall be continued for further development.

YouDo - we help! - An Open Information and Training Platform for Informal Caregivers.

The number of people in need of care increases constantly, and in the coming few years many seniors will depend on their close relatives for their care needs. These relatives very often need support to fulfill their role as informal caregivers. The YouDo prototype presented in this paper aims to provide special training programs for informal caregivers in order to help them to improve the quality of their nursing. This work illustrates first development concepts, used methods and techniques towards a modular, extensible and user adaptable multimodal information and training platform.