HEALER: A Design Research Exploration of PTSD among Emergency Nurses
This project explored occupational trauma in emergency nursing and explored trauma-informed approaches to rethinking support systems, including speculative digital artefacts.
My reflection through the journey
Design sensitivity and empathy when facing with trauma-informed scenarios
Despite this project being developed 5 years ago, there is still value in further exploration in this area. Working on this project helped me understand the importance of design with empathy and sensitivity when addressing users who may have experienced trauma. And it still has
At the time, my focus was primarily on heuristic innovations. However, later, the existing concept of trauma-informed design was brought out after I worked on another project aimed at designing a safe online community for women who have been through cult and domestic violence.
This experience forced me to re-examine the HEALER project. I realised that the core principles of trauma-informed design, such as safety, trustworthiness, and peer support, should be thoughtfully applied to digital services. Moreover, it goes beyond accessibility or emotional appeal. Further attention would be given to how to mobilize personal willingness to use these designed digital services in a safe narrative context, for populations with PTSD.
In the context of HEALER, these principles can help designers align with the trauma-informed design values, for instance, by presenting information in ways that avoid re-triggering and by designing a UI system that conveys a sense of stability and care. I came to realise that even subtle details can have a significant impact on final delivery, such as the tone of language and the pace of user flow. Moving forward, this experience has truly motivated me to continue studying the relevant design methods across diverse project contexts.
Research methods
I conducted the qualitative research with strong awareness of trauma-informed principles:
Semi-structured interviews
To explore lived experiences, trauma triggers, and informal coping mechanisms.
Thematic Analysis
Interview data were synthesised to identify recurring patterns, workplace support, and institutional conditions shaping trauma exposure and recovery.
Trauma-informed
Design process overview
Identify & Explore
Problem statement
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a delayed-onset or persistent mental health condition triggered by exposure to severe psychological trauma. Recent literature indicates a growing prevalence of PTSD among emergency department nurses, who are frequently exposed to high-stress, life-threatening situations in their work environment.
Design challenge
How might we design a product–service system that supports emergency department nurses in preventing, alleviating, or managing PTSD symptoms effectively?
In-depth user research
Interviews across 5 medium-sized hospital emergency departments
Recruitment
Self-recruitment was employed to identify participants for in-depth, one-on-one
interviews with emergency department
nurses within the target research area.
I visited the emergency departments of five
large and medium-sized hospitals and successfully conducted detailed interviews with ten nurses currently working in these settings.
Attentive to avoid retraumatize
I tried to avoid recall the 'broken' moments or memories of participants, and focus on the current ecology of ED instead of 'clinical diagnosis'.
Semi-structured interviews in 3 sections
Key findings - PTSD Triggers
Through symptom analysis of the interview data, I found that most participants had experienced intensive traumatic scenarios, and:
• Lack of recovery time
• Lack of counselling service in hospitals
• Normalisation of distress
contributed to the development of PTSD symptoms.
I identified main themes that further inform design concepts, of which some helpful quotes from the in-depth interview are listed below
Research synthesis
Through preliminary desktop research and semi-structured interviews, several recurring pain points were identified from three perspectives: the individualized trauma, overlook the importance of peer support, absence of regulative initiatives at hospitals for formal suuport, and social narrative.
The findings indicated a systemic absence of structured psychological counselling mechanisms and increasing demand for societal attention toward the mental health challenges faced by emergency department nurses experiencing PTSD symptoms
An initial system transformation toward different layers of support
The transformation diagram below compares the current support logic (as-is) with a proposed systemic model (to-be)
Digital Design Opportunities - self-exposure & peer-support
I chose to initially explore how the digital product can be designed to provide optional reflection and healing services as an exploratory pathway, facilitating self-exposure therapy as a way for the optional digital reflection and healing product within a broader support system.
And developed a peer-support model (“the cured partner”) to create mutual understanding, shared recovery experiences, and emotional resilience within the workplace.
Design Exploration
(ideas grounded in
research findings)
Personas
In order to gain a deeper understanding of users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviours, I created 3 personas based on the user interviews: 3 emergency department nurses with different work experiences.
Brainstorming
Through concept generation, I defined the features of the early optional digital reflectiona and healing tool as the following three pillars: Online communities, Self-help, Education
Insights to inform digital design concept
By balancing evidence-based research with creative design thinking, an insight-to-design mapping approach was applied, linking therapy concepts and user needs to concrete design elements to inform the development of the service.
Speculative digital support artefacts
Based on the previous research
and findings, I developed the speculative digital artefacts to explore how optional, controllable environments might support reflection and peer connection.
These artefacts are research probes instead pf clinical tools.
A user flow and a storyboard are illustrated, emphasising the functional processes and possible interaction scenarios
Prototyping of digital support artefacts_
User Interface design
I moved on to design the final interfaces of the digital service in Figma. My goal was to create a visual identity that aligned with the mobile users. The main interface is shown in the picture below: Wake up, Self-test, Match companion for support.
Prototyping of digital support artefacts_
Physical product design
I also designed the physical product, drawing inspiration from the interaction model of a gamepad and integrated AR technology to visualise the scene-exposure healing process.
The first applied scenario with exposure therapy
Near-death body mutilation
The second applied scenario with exposure therapy
Near-death
The third applied scenario with exposure therapy
Workplace violence
