Anchal | Designer

Healthcare - Faster Nurse-to-Nurse Handoffs

NurseShift

Role

UX Researcher & Designer

Timeline

8-12 weeks

Team

Anchal Nagdev, Manish Durgude, Atharva Ruikar

Tools

Figma, Clickup (project management)

Project Description

NurseShift is a clinical handoff management platform designed to reduce communication failures during nursing shift changes in hospital environments.

Time Pressure

A Day of nurse

When I began exploring the healthcare space, I focused on observing the real world of nurses,

how quickly a shift moves,
how many decisions are made, and
how little margin there is for error.

One question kept coming back to me:

Where do things most often break down, and why?

Cognitive Load

Information loss

Lack of accountability

Risk

Handoff

Leadership

Fatigue

Burnout

Research - Why Handoffs Matter

Every 12 hours, nurses transfer responsibility for dozens of lives. Yet in most hospitals, this shift handoff happens through paper notes, rushed hallway conversations, or buried EHR fields.

According to The Joint Commission(Health Organization),

80%

of serious medical errors involve communication failures during handoffs.

I dug into how hospitals manage handoffs:

8-12 min

spending per patient data copying between screens was reported by nurses.

9%

hospitals use AI-assisted summaries, and almost none support bedside privacy or real-time flagging.

68%

nurses say their current handoff process is time-consuming and unstructured.

What was needed

I spoke to real clinicians and reviewed over 20 studies.

The top needs?

Less typing.
More structure.
Real-time info. And
A handoff that fits their shift, not the other way around.

Clearly we needed the tool for safe patient handoff.

This shaped

NurseShift: a system designed to generate smarter handoffs, reduce risk, and give nurses time back without making them hunt for the data they already documented.

Competitive analysis

Available

Partial/Varies

Not Available

Capability

EHR-native handoff

(Epic/Cerner/MEDITECH)

Clinical comms platforms

(Vocera/TigerConnect/PerfectServe)

Niche handoff tools

NurseShift

Structured handoff sections

(varies by build/templates)

CST Cerner Help

(workflow dependent)

PerfectServe

(often)

(5-section model)

AI-generated handoff draft

(MEDITECH explicitly adding AI handoff)

MEDITECH

(more comms than summarization)

(AI + nurse review + "verification needed")

Closed-loop receipt ("Viewed", check-offs)

"Bedside Mode" privacy filter

Rare

(clear differentiator)

Shift-based access windows

EHR has role controls; shift-window logic varies

Role-based routing common

TigerConnect

Rare

(explicit shift + prep-time logic)

Coverage requests granting scoped access

Not typical

Sometimes via routing/workflows

Rare

Charge Nurse unit board + overrides

EHR lists exist but UX varies

Possible (workflows)

Rare

(designed in)

Analytics: completion, flags, severity distribution

Limited/DIY reporting

Limited

Rare

(native analytics)

Immutable audit trail for handoff actions

EHR audit exists

Platform audit exists

Rare

(product-level audit)

Understanding the Ecosystem

Additionally, I need to understand who all are involved in the process for considering their roles.

Charge Nurse

Unit‑level oversight and real‑time coordination

Receptionists

Admission and discharge (non‑clinical)

Administrator

System configuration and compliance

Bedside Nurse

Direct patient care and handoff creation

Nurse Manager

Operational insights and quality improvement

Design Challenge

How might we help nurses deliver complete, prioritized handoffs without adding documentation burden, while giving leadership the data they need to improve safety?

Personas

Rachel Thompson
Nurse Manager
ABOUT
Age - 52
Experience - 28 years nursing, 8 years management
Unit - Medical-Surgical
Background:
Rachel manages a busy med-surg unit with 45 nursing staff. She's focused on quality metrics, staff development, and patient outcomes. She reports to the CNO and advocates for her team's needs.
Goals & Needs:
Track hand-off completion rates across shifts
Monitor patient severity distribution
Identify patterns in clinical flags
Ensure standardized hand-off quality
Frustrations:
Inconsistent hand-off documentation quality
Difficulty identifying which nurses need support
Limited visibility into real-time unit status
Pain Points:
No historical trend comparison (week-over-week)
Time spent manually reviewing hand-off quality
Balancing administrative duties with floor presence
Behavior & Preferences:
Tablet for rounds, desktop for analytics
Reviews Analytics dashboard daily
Values data-driven decision making
Prefers visual charts over raw numbers
+
David Martinez
Charge Nurse
ABOUT
Age - 38
Experience - 4 years bedside, 4 years charge
Shift - Day shift (7a-7p)
Background:
David coordinates patient flow and nurse assignments on his unit. He's the go-to person for problems during the shift and bridges communication between bedside nurses and management. He handles admissions, discharges, and coverage requests.

Goals:
Balance patient acuity across nurse assignments
Coordinate coverage requests efficiently
Monitor unit-wide patient status in real-time
Support bedside nurses during high-acuity situations
Frustrations:
Last-minute call-outs disrupting assignments
Uneven workload distribution
Difficulty tracking who needs break coverage
Pain Points:
Managing coverage requests across multiple nurses
Keeping track of pending vs accepted requests
Balancing own patient load with charge duties
Behavior & Preferences:
Mobile-first during rounds
Checks Unit Board every 30 minutes
Uses coverage request panel actively
Values quick visual acuity indicators
+
Emily Nguyen
Bedside Nurse
ABOUT
Age - 34
Experience - 11 years med-surg and telemetry
Shift - Night shift (7p-7a)
Background:
Jennifer is a skilled nurse who often precepts new graduates. She's efficient with documentation and known for thorough handoffs. She values her time and gets frustrated by redundant systems that slow her down.
Goals:
Complete accurate hand-offs efficiently
Document clinical observations consistently
Request coverage for breaks without disruption
Mentor newer nurses on handoff best practices
Frustrations:
Inconsistent hand-off quality from other nurses
Time pressure at shift change
Forgetting critical details during verbal handoffs
Pain Points:
Writing comprehensive hand-offs takes too long
No structured format led to missed information
Difficulty tracking which handoffs need action
Behavior & Preferences:
Mobile device at bedside
Uses AI-generated summaries as starting point
Edits and personalizes hand-off content
Confirms hand-offs promptly before leaving
+
Sarah Mitchell
Unit Receptionist
ABOUT
Age - 29
Experience - 5 years in healthcare admin
Shift - Day shift (8a-4p)
Background:
Sarah manages the front desk of the medical-surgical unit. She handles patient admissions, answers phones, coordinates with transport, and supports the nursing staff with administrative tasks. She's often the first point of contact for families.
Goals:
Admit patients quickly and accurately
Enter complete patient demographics
Assign patients to correct unit
Ensure nurses see new admissions immediately
Frustrations:
Paper forms causing data entry delays
Incomplete admission information from ER
No visibility into room availability
Pain Points:
Manual re-entry of patient demographics
Nurses unaware of pending admissions
No visual bed/room status display
Behavior & Preferences:
Desktop workstation primary
Batch processes admissions
Values streamlined digital forms
Appreciates real-time sync to Unit Board
+

Features

AI Draft Generate

2. AI Generate All Drafts

3. Request Coverage

4. Handoff

5. Guided Mode

6. App Tour

7. Add Shift Note

8. Needs Support

9. Patients Data

10. Assigning Patient to Nurse

11. Bedside Mode

12. Unit Board

13. Analytics Dashboard

AI Draft Generate

Generates a structured handoff summary for a single patient using notes, vitals, labs, and medications, while keeping nurses in full control to review and edit.

Roles and permissions

Page/Feature

Nurse Manager

Admin

Receptionist

Charge Nurse

Bedside Nurse

My Shift

Handoffs Overview

Settings

Change User Roles

Analytics

Admin Pane

Incoming Handoffs

Admit/Discharge Patients

View Audit Logs

Unit Board

AI as a UX Decision

Rather than asking “Where can we use AI?”, I reframed the problem:
Where do nurses experience the most mental fatigue?

The answer was consistently end-of-shift handoff creation.

AI was designed to:

Preserve nurse control and accountability

Surface uncertainty instead of hiding it

Create a first draft, not a final answer

This positioning helped build trust and encouraged adoption.

Workflow: The Shift Cycle

Design

NurseShift uses a clean, clinical UI focused on clarity, fast scanning, and reduced cognitive load designed for high-stress healthcare environments where mistakes matter the most.

Visual Style

Primary Typography

Inter

Medium, Bold

Secondary Typography

Arial

Regular, Bold

Brand Colors

#09698C

#F1F5F9

#64748B

#E6F7FC

#EF4444

#FFFFFF

Bedside nurse: My Shift Dashboard

A shift dashboard enables fast scanning with live patient status, while patient details are organized into Overview, Notes, Handoff, and EHR. Incoming nurses review SBAR-structured handoffs, confirm receipt, and use Bedside Mode to hide private notes during patient interactions.

Charge Nurse: Unit Board

A real-time unit view groups patients by nurse, highlights high-risk and support-needed cases, shows live handoff completion status, and logs overrides and support flags for accountability.

Nurse Manager: Analytics

Designed for patterns, not individual patients—surfacing handoff completion trends, severity distribution, common red flags, and AI vs manual handoff rates to support staffing, training, and quality improvement.

Receptionist

A simplified, non-clinical workflow for admitting and discharging patients, with no access to clinical data and built-in guardrails to prevent errors.

Administrator

Focused on configuration and compliance—managing users, roles, patient lifecycles, assignments, and audit logs, with clinical workflows intentionally removed to reduce confusion and risk.

Let's Connect

I'm always open to having a chat, so feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Built with lots of ☕️ and ❤️

Mail

Twitter

NurseShift

Project Description

A Day of nurse

Research - Why Handoffs Matter

80%

of serious medical errors involve communication failures during handoffs.

8-12 min

spending per patient data copying between screens was reported by nurses.

9%

hospitals use AI-assisted summaries, and almost none support bedside privacy or real-time flagging.

68%

nurses say their current handoff process is time-consuming and unstructured.

What was needed

Competitive analysis

Understanding the Ecosystem

Charge Nurse

Receptionists

Administrator

Bedside Nurse

Nurse Manager

Design Challenge

How might we help nurses deliver complete, prioritized handoffs without adding documentation burden, while giving leadership the data they need to improve safety?

Personas

Features

AI Draft Generate

Roles and permissions

AI as a UX Decision

Workflow: The Shift Cycle

Design

Visual Style

Brand Colors

Bedside nurse: My Shift Dashboard

Charge Nurse: Unit Board

anchal nagdev