From treating to assisting:Designing to enable cultural change at the Reproductive Medical Department at Rikshospitalet
Master thesis
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Date
2019-05Metadata
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- Design [217]
Description
Assisted reproduction treatments are demanding and difficult to go through, and there is no guarantee that the treatment will be successful. Nowadays, the culture around assisted reproduction in public institutions in Norway is primarily focused on effectiveness and success rates, making many patients feel like they are not being acknowledged as people, but that they are part of a production line. The project explores how to enable cultural change at the Reproductive Medical Department at Rikshopitalet in order to make their service more supportive towards patients, acknowledging their differences and the difficulties they go through during the process of assisted reproduction. Three main principles were co-design to enable a transition from a production-oriented culture towards a culture of assistance: from assembly-line experience to team-based care; from treating everyone in the same way to acknowledging diversity; from a single view of success to an holistic understanding of experience. In order to support the process, cultural prompts were designed to evidence how each principle can be translated into new practices and/or tools: a visual proposal to make it easier to have access to the patient's information; a yearly program with weekly practices to encourage the healthcare team to have better communication with patients; a patients' diary to be used as a communication tool between the healthcare team and patients; and a new practice to measure patients' experience to identify improvement points in an easier way.The project goal is to become the first step towards cultural change at the Reproductive Medical Department. It aims to sparkle cultural awareness and inspire the team to continue this journey to make their service more supportive for patients.