What Do Nurses and Careers in Portugal Wish and Need from a Digital Intelligent Assistant for Nursing Applications

Abstract

Cognitive disorders (CD) are challenges in healthcare and present a looming threat to the financial and social systems of most countries. There are nearly 10 million new dementia cases every year and this has a physical and psychological impact on their nurses and carers. To soften this burden, the DIANA Project (AAL Programme and FCT) is developing a solution composed of smart 3D sensors, an open management platform, and a mobile application to fulfil several functionalities such as: monitoring patient safety 24/7 (e.g., unusual behaviour, falls), support activities of daily living (e.g., toileting) and observe health trends of patients (e.g., fluid intake, changed behavioural patterns). To better understand the secondary end-users’ needs and preferences regarding a solution of this kind, we applied a user-centred approach, to gather information from a questionnaire to retrieve the initial requirements of this solution. This outcome was combined with a literature review on the state-of-the-art projects in this field and the care for patients living with CD. As a result, the responses from 54 Portuguese nurses and carers were analysed regarding the establishment of a first set of functional requirements to the DIANA project, as well as the definition of use cases and personas to study. The results show that the three most important advantages of DIANA in Portugal would be assistance in nursing care, social interaction, and falls/mobility detection.