NHS: Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Project: Service Experience (group)
Duration: 6 weeks
Nov-Dec 2022
THE BRIEF
In groups of 4, we had been tasked with creating a service proposal for the NHS Scotland that empowers personalisation and ownership for women and children’s services. Our group was assigned the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde with a focus on the maternity ward. The final proposal should also support the staff to engage in the design and development of personalised care for patients and families.
DISCOVER
During our user research stage we conducted 9 interviews with NHS professionals and users who have utilised the service to gain first hand information. By combining this with our secondary research which we clustered together through analysis, it directed us to create insights which we delivered to our partners.
The main insights we had gathered were:
1. Long waiting times for appointments cause high anxiety and fear.
2. Professionals are under time constraints which leads to mothers finding comfort in others experiences.
3. Mothers find themselves researching further into pregnancy.
4. Having a strong and reliable support system through a partner and medical professional brings comfort and familiarity.
DEFINE
We conducted 3 individual co-design sessions with two mothers and one retired professional through an online session on mural. We got participants to create their own persona, react to scenarios on a timeline and have a discussion on some initial concepts.
After analysing our findings, we discovered that:
1. For conversation to start between mothers it needs to be light and humorous topics.
2. The environment of the waiting room discourages interactions between mothers.
3. Seeing and hearing other people’s experiences would allow mothers to feel reassured.
Co-design tools
DEVELOP
To develop our concept of a community wall in the waiting room, we began role playing and storyboarding to understand behaviours within the space. We also began to develop tools to support mothers within the system.
Adding our concept (orange) into the current journey (blue)
WHAT IS MARRA?
The marra waiting room was created based on our co-design session with a mother. We wanted to create a fun and engaging culture within the space. The fruit and vegetable timeline is used as a ‘conversation starter’ between mothers at similar stages. The waiting room is also used as a sharing space in which you can write your experiences on the cards and post it in the marra experience box.
WHAT IS THE MARRA PACK?
The marra pack is crucial and a key part of the system. Mothers will receive this pack which includes a journal, information sheet, example cards and tabs to mark the weeks. The journal has prompts to initiate what experiences they should share. At the end of each page mothers are able to extract key moments they would like to share with others.
The experience box will be collected each month by volunteers at local charities like merry go round and amma. They will discuss with midwives what was discovered that month. This will then be created into a poster in the waiting room. Some common stories will be extracted and created into videos for the TV screen. These visuals will inform mothers while waiting for their appointment. The cycle then continues.
