Fast Decisions, Clear Guidance: A Qualitative Study of Trauma Aid Design

Objectives Although trauma clinical guidance has the potential to improve patient outcomes significantly, they are applied inconsistently across the United States today. Work is needed to improve guidance application among those who treat traumatic injury, including emergency medicine (EM) clinicians. A priority step of such improvement is the visual design of clinical directives, as it can markedly influence EM clinicians’ satisfaction and subsequent usage of guidance. This qualitative study aims to determine EM clinicians’ needs and preferences for the visual design of trauma clinical guidance. Methods As part of a larger exploratory sequential mixed methods study exploring trauma clinical guidance barriers and facilitators, we conducted semi-structured video conference interviews during August and September 2024 with EM clinicians. Participants were selected through purposeful criteria and snowball sampling to ensure diverse representation across professional and personal characteristics. Interviews were audio recorded and analyzed through rapid qualitative content analysis. Results Twelve EM clinicians completed interviews, providing feedback on their preferences for the visual design of trauma clinical guidance. Clinicians emphasized the need for simple guidance that can be easily used in a time-pressured setting. Dynamic features such as expandable or “clickable” content can provide deeper explanations of guidance concepts without compromising usability. Flowsheets and visual aids can clarify guidance recommendations. Clinicians asked that recommendations be specific and action-oriented. Conclusion When designing trauma clinical guidance, authors should promote visual design characteristics that prioritize simplicity, dynamic features, visual aids, and specificity. KEY MESSAGES What is already known on this topic Trauma clinical guidance has limited usage today amongst EM clinicians for myriad reasons, among them cumbersome visual design practices that do not meet clinicians’ needs or preferences for guidance What this study adds EM clinicians’ preferences for trauma clinical guidance visual design include prioritizing simplicity, leveraging dynamic features to add depth, using visual cues to enhance navigability, and building recommendations with specificity and actionable steps in mind How this study might affect research, practice or policy Guidance authors and adaptors should prioritize these attributes as they produce future trauma clinical guidance, further reducing barriers to guidance usage amongst EM clinicians.