Completing Exploratory Observations in Irish Women’s Health Services: A Tool to Scope Opportunities for Responsible Design

This study outlines the use of exploratory observations as a scoping tool for design-based research in healthcare domains. It aims to explore the current state of healthcare provision across women’s health services in Ireland to identify future research directions and opportunities for responsible design interventions. Amid growing global sustainability challenges, there is a pressing need to leverage design to drive lasting, sustainable change in healthcare services. Furthermore, the lack of innovation in design for women’s health highlights an urgent need for focused, impactful design solutions within this under-researched field. Coupled with background research, exploratory observations were completed across a range of obstetric and gynecological clinical settings in the Mid-West Region of Ireland. These settings included outpatient gynecology clinics (ambulatory and referral clinics), a high-risk antenatal clinic, and guideline implementation meetings. In total, thirty-one hours of active observations were made across these settings to build an understanding of systems, processes, and products used within them. Observations were documented through detailed field notes, which were subsequently used to identify opportunities for responsible design and future research directions in the field. This study highlights exploratory fieldwork as a valuable tool for identifying research opportunities and defining scope in design-based healthcare research. It also contextualizes the realities of care provision within the sector, an insight essential for defining future research directions. This study triggered a future research direction focusing on reducing the environmental impact of maternity care services without compromising the quality of care provided.