Evaluation of Ergonomics of Data Entry System in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit John Fonge 1, Kendra Mills 1, and Brandy Scott 1 Advisor: Dr. William Walsh, Chief of Nurseries Pediatrics Neonatology 2 Vanderbilt University, Department of Biomedical Engineering 1 Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital, Department of Neonatology 2 Problem Statement Results Background What adjustments can be made to the existing prototype to fix the instability? Is the computer station going to affect the nurses’ work area at Vanderbilt’s Children's Hospital? Conclusion Separating the dual screens from Prototype I to the single screen in Prototype II provided a more stable system which allowed for easier movement by the nursing staff. Based on the nurses feedback, the additions incorporated the in the Prototype II design provided a better ergonomic setup for the bedside nursing monitor. We found that the single screen system is quantifiably a drastic improvement over the dual screen system. We found that the time it takes to raise and lower the arm decreased by 69% which would translate into a decrease in the amount of force required to vertically move the system. The stability of the keyboard improved by 75% and the oscillation duration decreased by 90%. Project Objectives Our goal was to determine an inexpensive way to stabilize the computer station setup, and assess the ergonomics of the support leg and keyboard. In addition, a nurse evaluation of the effectiveness of the prototype was performed. Methods Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a 60,000 square foot Level IIC Unit composed of 61 beds. The unit is divided into 7 clusters, or pods, each containing 6 or 7, 13 feet X 14 feet infant rooms arranged so that the nursing staff can see into all the rooms from the corridor. On average, they admit about 1200 infants per year. Until recently, nurses wrote down vital signs on paper and manually transferred them to the computer. This method, however, has led to insufficient documentation. Patient charting is now being entered directly into the computer to dispose of the double charting. Initially, each room was equipped with a mobile cart known as a COW, or computer on wheels. Then COW had many shortcomings such as short battery life, difficult to locate, and failure of their wheels. Dr. William Walsh administered the placement of a prototype computer nursing chart to eliminate these problems In a similar setting at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, conversion to a bedside computing system yielded many advantages. Acknowledgements: A special thanks to Dr. Paul King and Alex Makowski of Department of Biomedical Engineering, Allen Dyer of the Clinical Engineering Department of Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and the NICU nursing staff. Prototype IPrototype II Screen Size (inches) Range of Height (inches) Time to raise monitor (sec) Time to lower monitor (sec) Duration of oscillation (sec) Oscillations/sec32 Keyboard deflection with 2kg weight (inches) Figure 1: Computer on Wheels Figure 2: Prototype I Figure 3: Prototype II Figure 4: Prototype II, Wall mounted Informatics screen Figure 5: Support Pole Figure 6: Attachment for support pole Figure 7: Data obtained from testing mobility and keyboard stability of Prototype I and Prototype II. Figure 8: QFD Diagram After evaluating the dual screen setup (Prototype I), a second prototype was developed We first did an assessment of the single screen setup (Prototype II) to quantitatively measure improvement. Factors of importance included: greater range of motion, more stable workbench and decrease in the amount of work needed to make adjustments to system. The range of motion of both systems was determined. The amount of force needed to make vertical adjustments to each prototype was determined by assessing how much time it took to make the adjustments. "Keyboard shakiness" was quantified by measuring the duration and number of oscillations.