The purpose of the study was to assess the usability and perceived feasibility of an Android application for communicating a patient’s post-operative pain data to nursing staff. The application was assessed from the perspective of both patients and nurses. Patients were asked to evaluate the use of the application for inputting pain information into a tablet, and the nurses were asked to evaluate the ability to receive this information on a smartphone. The investigators hypothesize that an android application can be used to facilitate efficient
communication between post-operative patients and their nurses.
Methods:
A novel Android-based pain management application was prototyped and developed by a multidisciplinary team. This application was then tested with 10 post-operative patients and 10 registered nurses at a northern Californian academic medical center. The application was tested utilizing a Motorola Moto G4 Play for the nurse interactive interface and a Samsung Galaxy 9.7 Inch tablet for the patient interface. Patients and nurses were provided a short training on the use of the application and then allowed 30 minutes to interact with the application. During this time patients and nurses could use the application to communicate about the patients pain experience. After 30 minutes of application usage, both the patient and nurse completed a survey about their experience.
Results:
Preliminary findings are very encouraging for the continued development and use of the technology. 8 out of 9 patients indicated that they agree that they would use the application to communicate their pain data to their nurse on a regular basis throughout a hospital stay. 9 out of 9 patients indicated that the pain application would be an effective tool for capturing how well their pain was controlled. From a nursing prospective 9 out of 9 nurses indicated that they think the application would be a feasible alternative for obtaining patient pain data in post-operative care. 9 out of 10 nurses also felt that this application could be incorporated into their daily work-flow.
Conclusion:
Our data demonstrates that patients and nurses were able to communicate pain needs through the use of a novel application. Future studies will assess the concomitant changes in care delivery.