Nursing Address Book (NAB)

Welcome to the user guide for NAB! NAB is a desktop application tailored for ward nurses in Singapore, optimizing patient contact management via a Command Line Interface (CLI) while incorporating a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for ease of use. It complements the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, providing a quick way to help nurse care and connect with patients faster.

Designed for efficiency, NAB enables:

• quick access to patient records,
• streamlined contact management,
• simplified logging of care details,

proving to be a valuable tool for fast typists and those who prefer the precision of CLI operations.

If you are a new user, fret not! We have included a quick Introduction to the user guide.

If you wish to get started immediately, you can skip the introduction and head straight to the Quick Start section.

If you are a current user, feel free to jump into our Table of Contents to find the section you need help with.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Quick Start
• The Interface
• Features
  • Patient Management Features
    • Adding a patient
    • Listing patients
    • Editing a patient’s details
    • Locating patient contacts
    • Deleting a patient
  • General Features
    • Viewing Help
    • Clearing all Entries
    • Exiting the Program
    • Saving the data
    • Editing the data file
• Command Summary
• FAQ
• Known Issues
• Troubleshooting
• Glossary

Introduction

This guide is designed to help you navigate NAB with ease. The guide is divided into several sections, each focusing on a specific aspect of the application. As it is meant to give comprehensive details to master the use of NAB, it is recommended to read through the guide sequentially. However, we acknowledge that it can be overwhelming. Do not worry, as you can use the Table of Contents to navigate to the section you need help with.

The guide is structured as follows:

1. Quick Start: A quick guide to get you started with NAB.
2. The Interface: An overview of the GUI and its features.
3. Features: Detailed explanations of the commands available in NAB.
4. Command Summary: A summary of all the commands available in NAB.
5. FAQ: Answers to frequently asked questions.
6. Known Issues: A list of known issues
7. Troubleshooting: Possible solutions to common problems.
8. Glossary: Definitions of technical terms used in the guide.

If you are a new user, we recommend you to continue scrolling to get a better understanding of this user guide.

If you are a current user, you can skip this section and head straight to the Features section or the Command Summary to hone your skills. If you encountered some trouble, be sure to look through our FAQ, Known Issues or Troubleshooting sections for solutions.

Nonetheless, if you encounter any foreign terms, be sure to head to our Glossary!

We hope you find this guide helpful in your journey to mastering NAB.

Icons used in this guide

Here are the icons used in this guide and their meanings:

Icon	Meaning
Caution	Indicates a caution or warning. Typically, these are common errors.
Note	Provides additional information.
Tip	Provides additional tips for you to master the application.

Back to Table of Contents

Quick start

1. Ensure you have Java 11 installed in your Computer. You can find out how to identify your current Java version here, or install Java 11 from here.

2. Download the latest nab.jar from here.

3. Copy the file to the folder you want to use as the home folder for your NAB.

4. Open a command terminal.
   • For Windows users: Search for cmd in the Start menu and run it as an administrator if necessary.
   • For Mac/Linux users: Open the “Terminal” application (usually found within your Applications/Utilities folder).

5. Use the cd command to navigate to the folder where you placed the jar file.

6. Run the application by executing java -jar nab.jar on the command terminal.
   

   Shortly, a GUI resembling the following should display, including some sample input to get you started:
   
   
   
   

   Ensure you have the necessary permissions to execute commands.
   For Windows users, running the command prompt as an administrator may be required. If you encounter permission issues on Mac/Linux, you might need to use chmod +x nab.jar to make the file executable.

   
   Should you need help navigating the interface, refer to the Interface section.

7. Type the command in the command box and press Enter to execute it. e.g. typing help and pressing Enter will open the help window.
   

   Some example commands you can try:

   • list : Lists all patients.

   • add n\John Doe ic\T1234567P dob\01/01/2000 w\A1 ad\25/03/2024 : Adds a patient named John Doe to the NAB.

   • delete 3 : Deletes the 3rd patient shown in the current list.

   • exit : Exits the app.

8. Refer to the Features below for details of each command.

Back to Table of Contents

The Interface

The main window of NAB is separated into the following sections:

1. Command Box: This is where you can input commands to interact with the application. Press Enter to execute the command.

2. Display Box: This is where the application displays feedback for your commands (for e.g., whether it is successful, or has an error).

   Tip: You can resize the display box to your liking!

3. Patient Contacts: This is where the application displays the list of patients.

4. Data Storage Location: This is where the application stores the data file.

Additionally, the application provides a Help button at the top that you can click to view the list of available commands and their formats, apart from the help command. Similarly, the File button allows you to exit the application apart from the exit command.

Back to Table of Contents

Features

The features are categorized into two main sections:

• Patient Management Features includes commands that allow you to manage patient records.
• General Features include commands that provide general information and functionality.

Parameters for commands

Patient Management Features

For patient management features, NAB provides the following commands:

• Adding a patient: add
• Listing patients: list
• Editing a patient’s details: edit
• Locating patient contacts: find
• Deleting a patient: delete

Back to Features or Table of Contents

Adding a patient : add

Allows you to add a new patient’s information to the address book.

Format: add n\NAME ic\IC_NUMBER dob\DATE_OF_BIRTH ad\ADMISSION_DATE w\WARD [r\REMARK] [t\TAG]…​

Tip: A patient can have any number of tags (including 0).

You can find details about each parameter here.

Additional details:

• DATE_OF_BIRTH : Date of birth must not be later than admission date.
• ADMISSION_DATE : Admission date must not be earlier than date of birth.
• REMARK : Remarks have no length limit, and each patient can only have ONE remark field.

Example command:

add n\John Doe ic\T1234567P dob\21/03/2000 ad\02/02/2022 w\A1 t\FallRisk r\Requires assistance feeding. t\Diabetes

New patient added: John Doe
IC: T1234567P
DOB: 21/03/2000
Ward: A1
Admission Date: 02/02/2022
Remarks: Requires assistance feeding.
Tags: [FallRisk][Diabetes]

Listing patients : list

Allows you to view a list of patients in the address book.

If you use list command without optional parameters, you will be able to list all patients.

You may also filter by ward and/or tags to list only patients in a specific ward and/or with specific tags.

Format: list [w\WARD] [t\TAG]...

You can find details about each parameter here.

Additional details:

• WARD : Must only list at most ONE ward.
• Only patients with tags (and appropriate ward, if specified) that encompass all the provided tags will be listed.

Caution: If you wish to list all patients, utilise the command list instead of using empty parameters. Otherwise, it will assume that it is an invalid input.

• list results are permissive, meaning that specified tags will be treated as case-insensitive. Patients with tags that meet the above criteria will be listed.
• For the list commands below, we assume the list contains 2 people, John Doe and Jane Doe

Example command:

list

Listed all persons

1. John Doe
IC: T1234567P
DOB: 21 Mar 2000
Ward: A1
Admission Date: 2 Feb 2022
Remarks: 
Tags: [FallRisk][Diabetes]

2. Jane Doe
IC: T1234765P
DOB: 22 Apr 2000
Ward: B4
Admission Date: 3 Feb 2022
Remarks: Likes to read
Tags: [FallRisk][SevereAllergies]

list w\B4 t\SevereAllergies

Listed all persons with:
Tags: FallRisk
Ward: B4

1. Jane Doe
IC: T1234765P
DOB: 22 Apr 2000
Ward: B4
Admission Date: 3 Feb 2022
Remarks: Likes to read
Tags: [FallRisk][SevereAllergies]

Editing a patient’s details : edit

Allows you to edit an existing patient’s details in the address book.

Format: edit INDEX [n\NAME] [ic\IC_NUMBER] [dob\DATE_OF_BIRTH] [ad\ADMISSION_DATE] [w\WARD] [r\REMARK] [t\TAG]…​

You can find details about each parameter here.

Additional details:

• Edits the patient details at the specified INDEX. The index must be a positive integer that refers to the patient shown in the displayed list.
• You must provide at least one of the optional fields.

• Existing values will be replaced with the input values.

  Caution: When editing tags and/or remarks, the existing tags and/or remarks of the patient will be removed i.e adding of tags and/or remarks via edit is not cumulative. Be sure to copy the previous tags and remarks if you wish to retain them.
• You can remove all the patient’s tags by typing t\ without specifying any tags after it.
• Similarly, you can remove all the patient’s remarks by typing r\ without specifying any remarks after it.
• DATE_OF_BIRTH : If editing the date of birth, date of birth must not be later than admission date.
• ADMISSION_DATE : If editing the admission date, admission date must not be earlier than date of birth.

Example command:

edit 1 ic\T0123456P t\ r\ edits the IC_NUMBER, TAG and REMARK of the first patient to be T0123456P for IC_NUMBER and empty for both TAG and REMARK.

Assuming John Doe is at index 1 and previously had IC Number T1234567P, the tags [FallRisk] and [HearingImpaired], and remark Requires assistance feeding., the following shows the change in contact details:

Before:

John Doe
IC: T1234567P
DOB: 21/03/2000
Ward: A1
Admission Date: 02/02/2022
Remarks: Requires assistance feeding.
Tags: [FallRisk][Diabetes]

After:

John Doe
IC: T0123456P
DOB: 21/03/2000
Ward: A1
Admission Date: 02/02/2022
Remarks:
Tags:

Locating a patient’s contact : find

Allows you to find patients whose name or IC contain any of the given keywords.

Format: find n\NAME OR find ic\IC_NUMBER

You can find details about each parameter here.

Additional details:

• The search is case-insensitive. e.g. hans will match Hans.
• The order of the keywords does not matter. e.g. Hans Bo will match Bo Hans.
• Only full words will be matched e.g. Han will not match Hans.
• Patients matching at least one keyword will be returned (i.e. OR search). e.g. Hans Bo will return Hans Gruber, Bo Yang.
• Only full IC will be matched e.g. a1234567b will not match 123.

Example command:

• find n\John returns patient contacts with john and John Doe.
• find n\alex denver returns patient contacts with Alex Denver and Denver Li.
• find ic\a1234567b returns patient contacts with A1234567B.

Deleting a patient : delete

Allows you to delete the specified patient from the address book.

Format: delete INDEX

You can find details about each parameter here.

Additional details:

• Deletes the patient records at the specified INDEX.

Tip: In accordance with local regulations (such as PDPA), it is advisable to remove patient details once they are discharged.

Example command:

delete 2 deletes the second patient in the displayed list.

Deleted Person: Jane Doe
IC: A1234567B
DOB: 02/02/2000
Ward: A1
Admitted: 02/02/2020
Remarks: Likes to go to the park
Tags: [SevereAllergies]

Back to Patient Management Features or Table of Contents

General Features

NAB also provides the following general features:

• Viewing help: help
• Clearing all entries: clear
• Exiting the program: exit
• Saving the data
• Editing the data file

Back to Features or Table of Contents

Viewing help : help

Allows you to view a message explaining the available commands and their usage.

Format: help

On entering the help command, the following window will pop up:

Tip: Mac users can use Cmd + ` to switch between windows! Windows users can do the same with Alt + Tab!

Clearing all entries : clear

Allows you to clear all entries from the address book.

Caution: This action is irreversible.

Format: clear

Exiting the program : exit

Allows you to exit the program.

Format: exit

Saving the data

Data from NAB are saved in the hard disk automatically after any command that changes the data. There is no need to save manually.

Editing the data file

NAB data are saved automatically as a JSON file [JAR file location]/data/addressbook.json. While not advisable given the critical nature of the system, advanced users are welcome to update data directly by editing the data file.

Caution: If your changes to the data file makes its format invalid, NAB will discard all data and start with an empty data file at the next run. Hence, it is recommended to take a backup of the file before editing it.
Furthermore, certain edits can cause NAB to behave in unexpected ways (e.g., if a value entered is outside the acceptable range). Therefore, edit the data file only if you are confident that you can update it correctly.

Back to General Features or Table of Contents

Command Summary

Back to Table of Contents

FAQ

Q: How do I transfer my data to another Computer?
A: Install the app in the other computer and overwrite the empty data file it creates with the file that contains the data of your previous NAB home folder.

Q: Is your platform available in other languages?
A: NAB is currently available only in English, as it is the main language of Singapore. Support for additional languages will be introduced in future releases. Should patients have names in other languages, it is recommended to use the translation provided on their NRIC/ FIN. For extenuating circumstances such as foreigners, it is recommended to use an approximation of their name in English. For e.g., 李小明 can be approximated as Lee Xiaoming, Hallé can be approximated as Halle.

Q: What is the difference between list and find?
A: The list command allows you to retrieve multiple contacts, for which they are all useful. In contrast, the find command is used to retrieve a specific useful entry. This is designed to ease the mental fatigue of nurses. For example, nurses may be required to “find patient John Doe”, or provide a “list [of] all patients with flu symptoms”. With these two features, nurses can simply key in the request.

Back to Table of Contents

Known Issues

1. When using multiple screens, if you move the application window to a secondary screen, and later disconnect/turn off that secondary screen while the application is still open, the GUI will open off-screen on the primary screen. The remedy is to delete the preferences.json file created by the application before running it again.

2. When re-accessing the help window after minimising it, the help window may not pop up again. The remedy is to mouse over the NAB icon and click on the preview window to bring it back to the front.

Back to Table of Contents

Troubleshooting

1. Slow performance: If you experience slow performance or lag while using NAB, especially on older or low-end systems, you can try closing other running applications to free up system resources. Additionally, you can try restarting the application or your system to clear any potential memory leaks or temporary issues.

2. Error for empty tags and/or ward prefix(es) for list: The list command will not display patients with tags and/or ward prefix(es) that do not contain any associated content. This feature was intentionally designed to filter relevant patients with the appropriate tags and/or ward. As there is no use case (patients should usually have a ward and/or tag associated with them) for being able to look up empty tags and/or wards, it is not implemented.

Back to Table of Contents

Glossary

Back to Table of Contents