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Rebecca Lewis

My name is Rebecca Lewis and I'm a UX designer / researcher with a background in nursing. I am particularly interested in the UX research process. For my final research project, I focused on a topic close to my heart - student nurses' learning on clinical practice placement and the National Competence Assessment Document (NCAD). Using a participatory design process and inclusive design principles, I designed a mobile app of the NCAD with student nurses and preceptors. I explored the perspectives of Irish student nurses and preceptors on the use of the mobile app prototype & evaluated perceived efficiency, usability and satisfaction, in comparison to the paper NCAD system.

Walkthrough of the student's view of the National Competency Assessment Document (NCAD) digital mobile application prototype. This app was designed under a participatory design approach with Irish student nurses and preceptors, in line with other digitised student nurse e-learning and assessment platforms internationally. Below is an outline of how this project was approached.

The project began with a literature review of existing research on the NCAD. This helped to identify problems with the current paper based system in an Irish context and to identify research gaps. The main issues with the NCAD, as identified in the literature, is the use of complex language and terminology and that it is perceived as laborious and time consuming. Opportunities, as identified in the international literature, include the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for student nurse learning planning and assessment on clinical practice placement. The benefits of the use of ICT include enhanced learning and enhanced clinical competency assessment. Competitor analysis was conducted on existing international digitised student nurse e-learning and e-assessment platforms. This helped to identify UX/UI patterns that could be used in the design of the digital mobile NCAD prototype. Lastly, a set of universal and inclusive design principles were selected due to the diverse age, language, race and tech literacy range of the current NCAD users in Ireland.

I followed the Double Diamond Process Model for this project. An A/B evaluation took place where the researcher evaluated efficiency, usability and satisfaction of both the A - Paper NCAD and B - Digital NCAD prototypes. The Discovery research phase involved semi-structured interviews with student nurses and preceptors regarding their experiences with the paper NCAD. Later in the project, a Testing, Evaluation and Measurement process took place with student nurses and preceptors involving usability tests and post test interviews, and evaluated their experiences with the digital NCAD prototypes.

In the discovery research interviews, student nurses and preceptors reported an array of issues with the A - paper NCAD, including that it is time consuming, arduous, difficult to understand, hard to navigate and lacks guidance on clinical skills and scope of practice.

Using a participatory design approach, the researcher engaged in a series of co-design workshops with student nurses and preceptors to ascertain their preferences for a digital mobile NCAD. The researcher also got feedback on early stage proposed user flows and storyboards of the NCAD mobile app.

A series of paper prototypes were developed and tested with students and preceptors via guerrilla testing. A series of mid fidelity, followed by high fidelity prototypes were developed. Two separate views of the high fidelity prototype were developed, the student nurses view and the preceptors view. These prototypes were then included in a final stage Testing, Measurement and Evaluation Process.

In the testing, evaluation and measurement process, the digital B - NCAD prototypes were evaluated. Five student nurses and five preceptors took part. Usability tests and post-test interviews were employed, estimated time on task to measure efficiency and SUS was collected to measure satisfaction. Thematic analysis was performed for both groups and themes/ sub-themes emerged.

The research results supports the following statements: Irish student nurses and preceptors perceive the use of an ICT system to be more efficient to support clinical learning and assessment, in comparison to the paper based NCAD system. Irish student nurses and preceptors find the use of an ICT system to be more useable to support clinical learning and assessment, in comparison to the paper based NCAD system. Irish student nurses and preceptors perceive use of an ICT system more satisfying to support clinical learning and assessment, in comparison to the paper based NCAD system.

Evaluating the Perspectives of Irish Student Nurses and Preceptors of an ICT System to Support Learning and Assessment in Clinical Practice

The clinical practice placement is an invaluable component of the undergraduate nursing program in shaping future competent and safe nursing professionals. In Ireland, the National Competency Assessment Document (NCAD) is used to plan and assess student nurses’ learning on clinical practice placements. There is scant literature available on the effectiveness of this paper based approach. This research study explored the perspectives of student nurses and preceptors in Ireland on the benefits and limitations of the paper NCAD system, and investigated if a digital NCAD mobile application may offer a more useable, satisfactory and efficient experience. A group of ten participants engaged in usability testing and post-test interviews with a digital mobile NCAD prototype to evaluate its efficiency, usability and user satisfaction. Results indicate that Irish nursing students and preceptors found the digital NCAD to be preferable in all three variables, usability, satisfaction and efficiency. Future research should aim to design and develop a digital mobile NCAD application and conduct a longitudinal, contextual study with Irish student nurses and preceptors to evaluate its effectiveness in practice.

User Experience Design

2021 2022 2023 2024

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