Week Five Findings

October 5–11

Narrowing Down Direction

This week, we finally started to narrow down the direction and problem spaces we wanted to work in. We broke up the different directions into two categories: improving the current volunteer program at Shadyside/Presbyterian and adapting it to other hospitals or to covid, and creating a volunteer program for the new clinic. Under these main categories, we discussed a couple of different focuses:

For improving current volunteer program at Shadyside/Presbyterian:

• Making the current volunteer program more visible, easy to find, and simple to sign up
• Adapting the very robust pre-covid volunteer program to the circumstances now
• Applying the current program at Shadyside/Presbyterian to other hospitals that may not have such a strong program

For creating a new volunteer program at the clinic:

• Creating a volunteer program for the new clinic, including defining patient needs and volunteer roles. Can also include adapting elements of Shadyside/Presbyterian’s volunteer program to the new clinic
• Focusing on volunteer training within the new program at the clinic, with an emphasis on training volunteers to work with people with disabilities, especially blv

New Direction

During this week, while we have gone back and forth between some of the different directions we defined, especially between a virtual volunteer program for times of covid, and volunteer training for the new clinic, we have decided to focus on training. While a virtual volunteer program is really compelling, we decided to focus on volunteer training, because it’s very applicable to the new clinic, and it’s something that could be universally implemented in other hospitals’ volunteer programs, without changing their entire system.

Probes

Our probes are mainly directed to doctors, to get a better understanding of what their patients’ needs are, and how volunteers currently fit into their workplace. We’re currently working on and fleshing out our different probes:

Interactive survey posted on bulletin board

• Using stickers, individuals would be able to agree or disagree with different statements, so we get a broader understanding of the problem space, and what volunteers could possibly do
• This would be posted in Cindy’s apartment bulletin board, as the majority of residents are doctors, just to get a brief overview

Journey map using a candyland style board game

• Using candyland as a means to compare our journey map to what it actually is, and to ask questions based on the doctor’s daily routine, their location during their day, and how they react in different situations
• This particular probe would also be adapted for volunteers

Next Steps

Our next steps are to continue working on research while also drafting up prototypes of what our product could look like.