Usability Test for a Smart Glass-Based Application to Support Nurses' Hospital Admission Tasks

The shortage of nurses, which harms both patients and nurses, is a global issue. Healthcare providers are actively introducing information and communication technology and artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of their nursing work. Electronic devices in healthcare often face challenges such as poor accessibility, complex documentation processes, and interference with patient care. Therefore, this study focuses on smart glasses as alternative devices and develops a hospital-work support application to test its usability. The usability test involved nurses who perform hospital-admission tasks in a simulated hospital-room environment at a general hospital in Japan as part of a performance measurement, followed by interviews and questionnaires (System Usability Scale) with nurses. The smart glasses used in this study were AR100 and DE100 from Dynabook. The tests yielded results from five nurses, including System Usability Scale scores ranging from 37.5 to 70, reduced documentation time, and a nearly 100% task-completion rate. However, we found usability issues related to the input method and distraction risks owing to the presence of the display, and the required application functionalities may vary depending on the nurses' capabilities. Although smart glasses can potentially improve the efficiency of nurses' hospital duties, further enhancements in usability are necessary.