The Effects of Electronic Data Collection on the Percentage of Current Clinician Graphs and Organizational Return on Investment

Assessing the Usability and Feasibility of Digital Assistant Tools for Direct Support Professionals: Participatory Design and Pilot-Testing

BACKGROUND

The United States is experiencing a direct support professional (DSP) crisis, with demand far exceeding supply. Although generating documentation is a critical responsibility, it is one of the most wearisome aspects of DSPs' jobs. Technology that enables DSPs to log informal time-stamped notes throughout their shift could help reduce the burden of end-of-shift documentation and increase job satisfaction, which in turn could improve the quality of life of the individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) whom DSPs support. However, DSPs, with varied ages, levels of education, and comfort using technology, are not likely to adopt tools that detract from caregiving responsibilities or increase workload; therefore, technological tools for them must be relatively simple, extremely intuitive, and provide highly valued capabilities.

OBJECTIVE

This paper describes the development and pilot-testing of a digital assistant tool (DAT) that enables DSPs to create informal notes throughout their shifts and use these notes to facilitate end-of-shift documentation. The purpose of the pilot study was to assess the usability and feasibility of the DAT.

METHODS

The research team applied an established user-centered participatory design process to design, develop, and test the DAT prototypes between May 2020 and April 2023. Pilot-testing entailed having 14 DSPs who support adults with IDDs use the first full implementation of the DAT prototypes during 2 or 3 successive work shifts and fill out demographic and usability questionnaires.

RESULTS

Participants used the DAT prototypes to create notes and help generate end-of-shift reports. The System Usability Scale score of 81.79 indicates that they found the prototypes easy to use. Survey responses imply that using the DAT made it easier for participants to produce required documentation and suggest that they would adopt the DAT if this tool were available for daily use.

CONCLUSIONS

Simple technologies such as the DAT prototypes, which enable DSPs to use mobile devices to log time-stamped notes throughout their shift with minimal effort and use the notes to help write reports, have the potential to both reduce the burden associated with producing documentation and enhance the quality (level of detail and accuracy) of this documentation. This could help to increase job satisfaction and reduce turnover in DSPs, both of which would help improve the quality of life of the individuals with IDDs whom they support. The pilot test results indicate that DSPs found the DAT easy to use. Next steps include (1) producing more robust versions of the DAT with additional capabilities, such as storing data locally on mobile devices when Wi-Fi is not available; and (2) eliciting input from agency directors, families, and others who use data about adults with IDDs to help care for them to ensure that data produced by DSPs are relevant and useful.

Toward an Understanding of Data Collection Integrity

Data collection is an integral part of the practice of behavior analysis because behavior analysts rely on data to inform their clinical decisions. Data collection integrity (DCI) is the degree to which data are collected as planned, and issues with DCI can lead to misinformed clinical decisions. The current study aims to add to the limited research on DCI by evaluating risk factors and interventions that target DCI. An online survey, conducted through QualtricsTM, was completed by a combined total of 232 Board-Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and Board-Certified Behavior Analysts-Doctoral (BCBA-Ds). Participants answered questions about their demographics, their data collectors, their concerns about data collection, the systems they use to collect data, the training they provide data collectors, and the strategies they use to address data-collection issues. Results indicated that many risk factors related to DCI issues might be prevalent in behavior analytic practice. Recommendations on how to address DCI issues are provided.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-022-00684-x.

Assessing preferences of individuals with developmental disabilities using alternative stimulus modalities: A systematic review

The purpose of this systematic review was to identify investigations comparing the efficacy of alternative modality (e.g., pictorial, verbal, video) stimulus preference assessments for individuals with developmental disabilities. We identified articles by searching peer-reviewed journals using the PsycINFO and ERIC databases, conducting table of contents searches of common behavioral outlets, and conducting ancestral searches of recent reviews and practitioner summaries of preference assessment methodology. A total of 32 articles met our inclusion criteria. These studies were then coded across a variety of features to gain a better understanding of the efficacy of alternative format preference assessments for individuals with developmental disabilities. In addition, we reviewed this literature for the use of prerequisite-skill assessments and contingent-reinforcer access to further investigate the relation between these variables and the accuracy of pictorial, verbal, and video preference assessments. A variety of methodological concerns are discussed as well as suggestions for future research.

Using Microsoft Excel® to Build a Customized Partial-Interval Data Collection System

Using data to inform treatment decisions is a hallmark of behavior analysis. However, collecting the type of data that behavior analysts often require can be a labor-intensive and time-consuming task. Electronic data collection systems have been identified as a tool to alleviate some of the issues related to data collection, but many obstacles still exist. Current limitations of electronic data collection systems include cost, adaptability, ease of use, and compliance with privacy and security guidelines. The purpose of this article is to offer practitioners an alternative to buying an electronic data collection system by providing a task analysis on how to build customized electronic data collection systems using Microsoft Excel®. This task analysis is written for individuals with limited or no experience working with Excel® but may also be of utility to individuals fluent in Excel®. This task analysis is organized into three sections: (a) creating a basic electronic data collection table with dropdown menus and autofill features, (b) creating a timestamp for all data entered, and (c) creating automatically graphing displays of data.