Student Rsearch again; Privacy or Social Interaction

[Designstudent]

We are two senior product design students from Western Michigan University doing research on dialysis environments for our thesis project and need your feedback/input. We have also posted other question throughout the forum, feel free to respond to those also.


We would like to know whether you prefer privacy or social interaction while dialyzing (sp?) or a mixture of both? Please feel free to elaborate or tell a story or two.


Thank you for your time!!!!!!   

Tony & Alan

[goofynina]

Please go to the Introduce Yourself section and let us know more about you and what this is for please.  thank you...

[Rerun]

After your introduction, start your own thread and ask your questions there and we will answer if we can.  I hope you are legitimate because we don't want our time wasted.

[Designstudent]

I am sorry if we are making others upset but we are not trying to waste anyones time at all, we need answers to questions we have since we cannot go to a clinic.  We are trying to design a whole new experience for you. In order to do that we need to know everything about what you do at these clinics.  Like eat, sleep, read, talk to others, watch TV, knit, walk, drink, play games, talk on the phone, and also need to know whats uncomfortable, what you don't like, what you would like, how you feel the time could be improved.   We really appreciate everyones time and consideration.   

Alan & Tony

[goofynina]

Alan and Tony,   Your not making anyone upset,  we are just very protective on who posts here and why, we dont want spammers.  Now that you have introduced yourself, we all know you a little better and we see what you are aiming at so we will try and help as much as we can, especially since it is for our benefits 

[Joe Paul]

Maybe a little off topic, but I think lots of people complain (including me)  about the cold while on dialysis. Maybe a booth of sorts would be nice, that way we could control our own space, so far as heat, cold, loud TV..I think you get the idea.

[kitkatz]

Here are my ideas for a dialysis environment.
1. It is often too cold in the the dialysis unit and we have no control over our environment. It is either freeze or fry. Make it so we control our own piecce of real estate's climate.
2. Do not put air/heat vents over the patients chairs.  How dumb is that?
3.  Personal TV for each patient with cable, game hook ups and games to be played.
4. Wirless internet.
5. Provide personal laptops patients can check in and out during their time there.
6. A table with a basket to hold my personal stuff.  The table needs to be able to tilt and be lowered to any height where the patient might need it.
7. A cup holder somewhere to hold my cup of ice or soda if I am so inclined to have one.   
8.  Have moveable lights so the patient does not have light in their eyes all treatment long.
9. Provide soundproof headphones so we can sleep through the noise.
10. A call button somewhere near so we can call a tech or nurse without having to yell.
12. Personalized DVD players to check in and out; with a library of movies.
13. A tech geek to trouble shoot laptops, games, movies and TVs on the spot instead of "tag and bag it" till we can get it fixed.
14. COMFORTABLE CHAIRS!!!! If you just found a chair that was comfortable to sit in for four hours and can be cleaned easily.
15.  A cubby system with locked tops so we can leave or personal stuff at the unit.  You need room for a blanket, a sheet, headphones, a book or magazine and pencil packs to hold pens and pencils for us.  It could be on wheels so it just comes with you to the chair.  If the table (mentioned above) was attached and could be disconnect to be used at any height that would be great.
16. Electrical systems that are up to code and are able to take the combination of machines, computers, and players without shorting out. Maybe put the dialysis machines on a seperate electrical line from the computers and such we are using in the unit. I shorted out an electrical socket one day just plugging in my DVD player in my unit.
17. Space so my treatment does not have to seen or heard by every person in the place.
18. A soundproof area for the criers and screamers so we do not have to be awakened by them all treatment long.
19. A scale that really weighs you the right weight.  One that does not lie to you evertime you step on it. lol.

Just a few ideas, as I think of them I will let you know.

[kitkatz]

I could take some pictures of what I think you should not be doing from my uint? You interested?

[Designstudent]

I could take some pictures of what I think you should not be doing from my uint? You interested?

thanks for all the feedbac kitkatz  , alot of ideas we were already planning and some we wouldnt have thought of without your feedback.  and if you want to post pics feel free, we will accept any help any of you all offer, its up to you how much you want to help

alan

[kitkatz]

If you want to email me personally I will answer any and all questions you may have.  Been doing the dialysis thing for eight years now.  I am full of ideas for improving the time and space there and would love someone to tell it all to. (Still can't type the word dialysis correctly 90% of the time!)

[goofynina]

Well allright Kit,  Girlfriend, you know what's up dont'cha??  KIT FOR PRESIDENT!!!  You've got my vote honey 

[kitkatz]

A patient planned dialysis unit fromt op to bottom.  Wow! What a concept!

[tubes]

  WOW kitkatz, you have some great ideas. 
Where I sit there are 2 vents above me.  I have a big 'ol blanket I take with me and a pillow.  I really like the cubby idea.  I hate lugging all my dialysis stuff around.  Can't keep it in the car, someone sees all the stuff and might break in.  Would love to leave it at my unit.  We're lucky, we have our own TVs.  No sharing here.  Except half the remotes don't work.  If there is an empty chair we switch out the remotes.  If I cant get a working remote I just listen to my ipod.
You have to remember the nurses need to be comfortable.  If they need the cool air, well thats why you bring a warm blanket. Still, the vents over the chairs is VERY stupid.  We played bingo once at my unit and I'm trying to get them to do it again.  The nurses put up a big poster board with a bunch of cards on it.  You pick out which card you want and write your name above it.  Then every monday they would call out a new number.  Thought I would mention it.  I think it's a neat idea.    
I wouldn't like my own personal area or privacy screen.  I like to interact with the nurses and the only other young person at my unit.  We sit next to each other.  I'm very social and I would go NUTS if I was boxed in and couldn't see anyone else.    

Wish I could contribute more.  I think kitkatz covered just about everything I could think of. 

Well allright Kit, Girlfriend, you know what's up dont'cha?? KIT FOR PRESIDENT!!! You've got my vote honey

                  I 2nd that ! ! ! ! !  [/color]

[Fox_nc]

Yep I think Kitkatz summed it all up very nicely!  I second the cubby idea.  I feel like I'm going camping everytime I go in and would love to not have all that crap to carry.  My unit is fairly new, so I do have a personal TV (with headphones) which is great.  I take my laptop with me, so I would also love to see wi-fi up and running.  If the can do it at McDonald's, surly they can do it at a clinic.  Call buttons also a great idea.  When I need something I hate having to try and get someones attention on the other side of the room.  Right now I just take a real deep breath and make the machine beep    I would also like to see an area for a friend or family member to sit if they would like.  My huband would like to go with me sometimes, but the only space is for the patients.  He takes me to my chair (with my load-o-crap) kisses me and then has to leave - which sucks!  My husband goes home for the 4 hours since we live close, but there's a man that dialyzes at the same time I do, who is in his 60's, and his wife sits in the lobby for the entire 4 hours.  I feel really bad for her and would like it if she could spend that time with her husband.  Oh oh and if we are talking design, I would love to see color!  Not just hospital green and blue either.  Vibrant, alive colors!  Who needs cream white?  Not me!

[BigSky]

The only thing we need is wireless net access.

When they built this unit they put these panels above each chair hooked to a timer that is suppose to let you turn heat on for each individual treatment spot but they do not work for crap so no one uses them.  Brand new POS is what they are. 

[Rerun]

I wish they would have someone come around and do manicures and pedicures.  I'm on a permacath so my hands are free.  I would love to get my nails done because I would be accomplishing something and I hate to sit and have that done on my own free time. 

I love the cubby or lockers idea.  I too hate carrying all my crap in and out.  I have: my DVD player, book, knitting, cell phone, and snack all on that little piece of shit table ledge on the side of the chair. The other side has a table ledge too, but that is for the Tech's crap. 

Maybe a heated chair that vibrates if you put a quarter in it. 

I would like my own parking space.

[kitkatz]

I agree about the little crap table on the chair.  Come of folks!  How in the hell am I supposed to put anyhting of value on a table one foot long by six inches wide?   I want work space so I could play with a game, or put the newspaper down safely instead of losing it all over the floor.  I could grade papers if there was room or a table. Or watch my DVD player in front of me instead of getting it hot on my lap.

[jbeany]

I haven't started diaylsis yet, but I'm an old hand at iron transfusions, which are done in the Oncology Dept.  I'm guessing the set-up is similar for patients there getting chemo.  And I agree - get comfortable chairs!  (Iron transfusions take between 7 to 9 hours - the chairs do NOT get more comfy when you stay in them longer!)

My other big gripe is the radio playing.  I did a transfusion just before Christmas and they had a radio on for the nurses to listen to.  9 straight hours of Christmas carols did not leave me in a holly jolly mood.  They had it loud enough to hear over my own headphones.  If I'm going to be stuck in an environment that long, I want to be able to control the temp, the sound, and who I have to talk to while I'm sitting there.  I'm very much in favor of private cubbys.  At least a few of them - I realize some people prefer the social interaction, like the previous poster mentioned - but shouldn't we have the choice?  And those flimsy little sliding curtains do not count!  Try some solid, sound blocking wall screens at least.  Would it be so hard to ask if you minded open seating or prefered some privacy?

I also got parked next to the ice machine once - just try and sleep or even think with that clunking in your ear every few minutes.  It's nice that they have one located close by so people can access it without getting a nurse to do it - but not great for the chairs close to it.

And if they can't afford new artwork, do you think they could at least rotate it once in a while?  How hard would it be to change the pictures from one room to another?  Why is it the kids' wards get murals and happy colors and the rest of us get puke green and bad prints that look like they've been stolen from a Holiday Express after a fire?   

[Epoman]

I haven't started diaylsis yet, but I'm an old hand at iron transfusions, which are done in the Oncology Dept.  I'm guessing the set-up is similar for patients there getting chemo.  And I agree - get comfortable chairs!  (Iron transfusions take between 7 to 9 hours - the chairs do NOT get more comfy when you stay in them longer!)

My other big gripe is the radio playing.  I did a transfusion just before Christmas and they had a radio on for the nurses to listen to.  9 straight hours of Christmas carols did not leave me in a holly jolly mood.  They had it loud enough to hear over my own headphones.  If I'm going to be stuck in an environment that long, I want to be able to control the temp, the sound, and who I have to talk to while I'm sitting there.  I'm very much in favor of private cubbys.  At least a few of them - I realize some people prefer the social interaction, like the previous poster mentioned - but shouldn't we have the choice?  And those flimsy little sliding curtains do not count!  Try some solid, sound blocking wall screens at least.  Would it be so hard to ask if you minded open seating or prefered some privacy?

I also got parked next to the ice machine once - just try and sleep or even think with that clunking in your ear every few minutes.  It's nice that they have one located close by so people can access it without getting a nurse to do it - but not great for the chairs close to it.

And if they can't afford new artwork, do you think they could at least rotate it once in a while?  How hard would it be to change the pictures from one room to another?  Why is it the kids' wards get murals and happy colors and the rest of us get puke green and bad prints that look like they've been stolen from a Holiday Express after a fire?   

AWESOME post, I feel the same way. 

[jbeany]

One more thought from me - windows!  One of the local infusion centers is in a basement.  9 straight hours in dank dungeon - bleech!  The last one I went too had really high windows because they were on the ground floor and it was designed so that people walking by couldn't look in, but at least you could still see the sky.  If windows are not possible, at least some light bulbs that look like natural light instead of flickering fluorescents.  (I'm pale and sickly looking already, I don't need any more help in that department.)

How about a bird feeder outside the window, while we're at it?  A fish tank would be nice, but the birds are a lot less time consuming for the staff.

I've toured my local dialysis center - the lobby is solid glass, and the dialysis unit doesn't have a window in sight.  Where's the logic in that?

[Black]

Wow, I'm impressed by the number of good ideas, and Kat for POTUS gets my vote too.

I wonder if one of the local churches would take on a small clinic as a church project and offer to rotate art work, or supply a bird feeder, or supply and keep up a small aquarium.  Maybe church members could be available occasionally to pick up and drop off patients to give the caretaker a break? or provide some niceties for the the people who have to wait for 4 hours for a patient, some kind of entertainment in the lobby area -- TV, DVDs, DVD player, lap tray to use for a desk, or a recliner for a nap?

Wouldn't it be great if volunteers could give foot massages, back massages, manicures, pedicures, etc.?  (Didn't Angie mention this in another thread?)  I'm sure many clinics wouldn't allow it as they allow no one beyond the outer door, but surely some would.

BTW, one clinic we visited in GA, had a small box stuck in the doorway so the door wouldn't close and everyone just opened the door and walked around the box.  At the same time the back door was propped open for a delivery guy to come and go with supplies being stacked in the back storeroom.  We walked all around with the unit director and were not restriced from any area.  Every time the outer front door was opened the breeze blowing through the center was refreshing, and no one seemed to mind.

[kitkatz]

The cubbies or storage units have to lock, with my own lock too, that only I have the key too.  See sometimes the techs want to get five fingered disocunts, and patients too.  Make it lockable and useable. 

[Rerun]

We tind to jump out windows!!   

[stauffenberg]

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that no patient likes to have to watch right across from him for four hours, three times a week, a mirror image of himself so he can see either how he is deteriorating or will deteriorate in the future.  This 'mirror image' is another patient, who should never have a dialysis station right across from a patient so that the two have to watch each other all the time.  I had to watch one fellow for years as he gradually vanished before my eyes, first having a left foot, then a right foot, then a left arm, then a right leg, amputated, until there was more of him left at home than coming to the dialysis unit!  The patient across from me after he died was an old woman who never said a word but stared at me constantly, so every time I would look up from my reading, I would find her still staring intently at me.

Also, you should insulate patients from the horrors to the left and right of them.  No one wants to have to listen to other patients screaming because they are sensitive to the needling, nor does anyone want to have to hear the anguished discussions they have with their relatives who visit.  In general, there is insufficient sound insulation, so the person who wants to read has to concentrate against a background of people groaning from crampings, some screams, conversations of mind-numbing inanity, and the blaring television sets of the deaf.

The biggest topic of dispute among patients is the lighting, since some patients want to sleep and other people want to read.  The lighting has to be arranged so it is possible for each treatment station to be individually illuminated without disturbing others.

Finally, privacy is more important than sociability. Some patients develop diarrhea during treatment, but since their blood pressure is too low for them to be allowed to be disconnected, stand, and go to the washroom, they have to defecate in a pan placed under them.  As much as some people might like to socialize, it is more important to preserve privacy.  Also, other patients can be alarmed and depressed by having to witness the medical emergencies that occur at other treatment stations, and no one dying on dialysis wants to have to look at the corpse of another patient who has died from severe hypotension, stroke, or heart attack during the treatment.

[livecam]

Thanks for the upbeat assessment Mitch.  We all love you so much.