From vital signs to AI Nurse scientists Femke Becking-Verhaar and Jocelynn Kraan about their research

Nurse scientist Femke Becking is conducting PhD research on nutrition and exercise. She was also closely involved in rolling out continuous monitoring of vital signs on the ward and actively participates in evaluating data-driven care. Jocelynn Kraan is going to conduct PhD research on AI in relation to these vital parameters. 

‘The introduction of continuous monitoring of patients’ respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, and heart rate on several wards has significantly changed healthcare. I contributed to a study by Getty Huisman, where we examined nurses’ experiences with continuous monitoring. What were the barriers and facilitators? One key finding was that it gives nurses a greater sense of safety, as they can intervene earlier if necessary. This improves the quality of care and, consequently, patient outcomes.

Currently, several follow-up studies are underway, funded in part by a ZonMw grant awarded to Getty Huisman and Bas Bredie. Nursing Scientist Jocelynn Kraan will focus her PhD research on this topic. Using Artificial Intelligence, we can assign a score to these vital parameters. A great example is the Visensia Safety Index (VSI). The higher the score, the worse the patient’s condition. A drawback of the current monitoring method is that alerts are triggered by changes in a single parameter. Sometimes that’s too soon. For example, we know the respiratory rate is measured less accurately when a patient sleeps on their side. That doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. This score shows a trend, helping us better assess whether the patient’s condition is truly changing.

This score is not yet in use; it’s still in the testing phase. The question is what this means for nurses. They are trained in clinical reasoning and excel at it. That’s why we’re working with a small group of colleagues to see how they view this score and how they might use it. Nurses want to maintain control over their work. This score could potentially be a helpful support tool in their daily practice. That’s what we aim to find out now.’