JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Blue Light services, such as police, paramedics, firefighters and other emergency responders, work under challenging conditions commonly associated with unpredictable schedules, complex shift patterns, and high stress levels. These challenges negatively impact their mental wellbeing, physical health, and job performance, leading to potential health concerns such as fatigue, poor sleep, long-term physical disabilities, anxiety, and poor work-life balance. Existing digital interventions fail to address the challenging needs of these shift workers due to focusing solely on conventional 9-to-5 schedules. This gap highlights the need for tailored interventions that integrates shift management with health and wellbeing support for professionals with shift schedules.

Objective:

The objective of the study is to design and develop a co-created digital wellbeing application that integrates a shift management system. The designed solution aims to address the unique scheduling challenging and associated health concerns faced by Blue Light personnel, so has improve their wellbeing, organisation’s operational efficiency, and job satisfaction.

Methods:

A qualitative approach was employed for this research by incorporating Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) with co-creation and user-centred design (UCD) principles. Five co-creation sessions, each lasting two hours, were conducted with key stakeholders, including police officers and shift management experts. Data from these sessions were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns, user needs, and design functionalities.

Results:

The thematic analysis of data collected identified stressors such as inconsistent shift scheduling, limited flexibility, and inadequate support for work-life balance. Participant highlighted the need for a system capable of managing high volume schedule with real-time adaptability. A prototype was developed that included functionalities such bulk creation and modification of schedules, customisation of individual shift times, visualisation tools for monitoring and identifying shift trends and reusable base patterns for efficiency. The research demonstrated that integrating schedule management into a wellbeing app could provide personalised support, such as hydration reminders and relaxation techniques, based on users’ shift schedules. The prototype showed significant potential to reduce stress, enhance scheduling adaptability, and support the health and wellbeing of personnel in high stress profession.

Conclusions:

The co-created digital wellbeing intervention addresses major gaps in existing digital interventions by combining detailed shift management with health and wellbeing support tailored to the needs of Blue Light personnel. The study shows the importance of shareholder collaboration in designing robust and effective solutions for high-stress professions. Future work will expand the sample size, explore scalability to other emergency services, and incorporate longitudinal assessments to evaluate the system’s impact on reducing stress and improving overall wellbeing. By bridging the gap between operational needs and health requirements, this study offers a framework for developing digital solutions that enhance the quality of life and productivity of essential workers.