ABG Lab Interpretation Tool

Describe the learner.
The learner is a Registered Nurse who is a staff nurse in a hospital. The individual has completed at least 2 years of schooling and passed a licensure exam. This individual has completed basic knowledge of pathophysiology which is adequate to understand acidosis and alkalosis.

Justification:
The usability feedback told me to explain the tool more and to chunk the information. This final I believe does both of these even though my target audience will be more familiar with the content than the usability team. The information is valuable. The training tool presents information to the nurse on the fundamental concepts of interpreting an individual patient’s laboratory values. I revised the tool by using two distinct types of content, a pneumonic and a visual for this learning style. This also employs the repeated aspect of CARP where the information creates perceptual association. The other design elements related to CARP are:
· Contrasted relevant information, with the use of Bold and color.
· Aligned information sequentially.
· Repeated color to emphasize the concept as well as visualized the concept.
· Approximated the content with the boxes denoting like information and chunking the information.

I changed the type to Georgia the book on page 220 says it is “typeface designed for the web”. This final tool is much revised from the original and I believe easier to read than the first revision, repeating the concept with visual, contrasting color and bold, aligning the tool within the picture and within content as well as chunking the information for ease in identification all contribute to an effective tool.

Usability Unit 3

Describe the learner.
The learner is a Registered Nurse who is a staff nurse in a hospital. The individual has completed at least 2 years of advanced schooling and passed a licensure exam. This individual has completed basic knowledge of pathophysiology which is adequate to understand acidosis and alkalosis.

Arterial blood gas (ABG) values provide valuable information about a patient’s acid-base status, the underlying cause of the imbalance, the body’s ability to regulate pH, and the patient’s overall oxygen status. Diagnosis of acid-base disturbances and identification of compensatory processes are done by reviewing and understanding the patient’s laboratory values.

Justification:
The presentations here are training tools that present information to the nurse on the fundamental concepts of interpreting an individual patient’s laboratory values. Both tools allow the nurse to determine the patient’s acid-base status. The first tool I found to be wordy and the instructions hard to follow. I revised the tool by using a pneumonic that I have found helpful. The second tool is designed based on CARP.

· Contrasted relevant information, with the use of Bold and color.
· Aligned information sequentially.
· Repeated color to emphasize the concept.
· Approximated the content with the boxes denoting like information and chunking the information.

I changed the type to Garamond which I had never used before. The book on page 217 says it is “very easy to read”. I did this because I found the type in the original tool hard to read. I right justified the content in the revised picture based on information from Unit 2.

Second Version of Project Unit 2

After very constructive comments from my group, I altered the image to better represent the information. Kim ask for more information concerning the entire project so I added information to the introduction. Fatma mentioned that giving titles to the areas would be helpful and so I did add the Lab values, definition and Hydrogen ion concentration in blood over each area. The book in Chapter 3 states on page 56:" The boxes represent information nodes in memory, and the lines represent the connections or relationships between the different nodes. These connections provide access to and from diffrent parts of memory, and as such are traceable. It is the traceable characteristic that allows for recall or the ability to remember." This is what I have tried to do with the color shading and the boxes, have the learner remember the associations between the picture and the value and definition. In Chapter 10 I used the rectangle to "group or separate information, ...use shapes to divide information when you want information to be seen differently." page 249. I found this project very helpful and hope to take this project one step further and animate it. I can see where it would lend itself to animation.

Arterial Blood Gas Intrepretation

The objectives for my module are:

Audience: Registered Nurses in Hospitals throughout Northern Colorado.

Behavior: Differentiate between or classify pH values according to three basic categories, Normal, Alkalosis, or Acidosis.

Condition: Given the attached informational slide.

Degree: Without error.

Self image in 5 lines

Well, this looks a bit scary! I have posted this one in power point however I intend to buy Illustrator for my Mac and then do a much more fabulous job.

Welcome

I have never blogged, quite frankly I find the process tedious! I was never a "diary girl" and so do not think to jot down my thoughts or feelings or anything else for that matter. However, I see this as a new beginning for me to branch out and blog! As my title says, I am persevering so here we go!