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Training Nurses With Virtual Veins
meganthom writes "UK Haptics is developing a virtual hand to help nurses learn how to draw blood and put in IVs in a realistic manner. Though plastic models are currently used, these do not give new nurses the 'feel' for how much pressure to apply to the needle, and they cannot alert the nurse about pain. The system currently under development, which uses haptics, would make the learning experience considerably more realistic, even telling the nurse when too much pressure was applied."
My wife had a plant safety class where they learned CPR from a paramedic who specializes in training. She had tattoed instructions on her arm how to do CPR, with an X on her wrist saying "Check here for pulse" and an X on her chest over her heart saying "Push here"
:)
People should come with operating instructions
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Last time I had blood taken, they let the trainee practice on my arm. She managed to spear through a major vein a few times, but never actually got in there. After making that vein completely useless, the head nurse came over and tried on the other arm. The trainee was still shaking, I'm not sure if she was nervous or just a shaker.
TallGreen CMS hosting
I just gave blood yesterday and volunteered to be the guinea pig for a new trainee. I was her first human stick!
(She did great, but nevertheless, I would have felt better if she could have trained with one of these first.)
Effective now (at least in California) nurses (and other workers in similar fields) are excempt from receiving overtime, which basically means that when one has to work a 12 hour shift because of high demand, that person receives 12 hours of standard pay.
The governments answer to those affected, is the suggestion that they join unions, which can apparently remove that burden and credit hard working medical personal the wages they deserve.
This is a field where force feedback VR is truely useful. Not only can it be used for safer training {thou probably more expensive, as another commenter pointed out}, but it makes remote surgery much safer and more practical.
Medical imaging is a field that is still in need of tech advancements. Matching two scans of the same patient is hard to do. I worked on early stages of a project making a 'statistical atlas' of the femur. These are extremely useful but barely developed. Also I've looked into robotic surgeons, and while they look pretty good, their use is not widespread at all.
Then of course there's other uses like gaming {pr0n for some of us^H^Hyou} for this tech. Whats cool is that gaming helps surgeons.
done
Just recently had a emergency room experience with my 15 month old son. He is a BIG BOY, im talking 30 lbs. With a good solid coating of baby fat and not a vein in sight. None of the regular nurses could get an IV into him, but when the IV team comes around the vein fishing stops. I'd like to see poking a dummy rival the real life experience of trying to IV a screaming strong baby. Picture this: 2 parents holding him down, he is screaming loud enough to make the most emotionless person break out in a sweat, and wriggling constantly while she is trying to find the vein. At the doctors office they tortured him for 25 minutes trying to draw blood. He looked like he had been used for a pincusion. The IV team at New York Hospital? 1st try, under 30 seconds. That is this woman's sole job, to go around and hit veins on the first try. She is good at it because of her real life experience.
music lover since 1969
When I learned IV insertion we practiced on a loose-fitting concentric rubber tubes with liquid between them. The inner tube squirmed around about as much as a normal vein.
It's nice to see that they're getting more realistic.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
That reminds me of when I had my root canal done. The most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life was when he put that needle to my swollen gum, to numb the area for drilling.
:)
On the followup appointment (to put a plug in the tooth that was draining), I told him just to use extra topical and skip the injection. Barely felt a thing then.
Any time a friend is having a root canal I tell them this story, just in case they have a similar experience, I hope to save them at least some pain.
How a system can measure the pain? Everybody has a different level of tolerance. The only way to learn this is with real subjects.
I'm wondering if they can simulate collapsed veins properly.
I was in the ER 3 months ago because of massive blood loss due to an ulcer (down to 1/3rd what I was supposed to have), the nurses got one IV in fine in my right hand, but they tried digging for 5 minutes in my left trying to get the vein, finally giving up and sticking it in my right arm instead.
Would be nice if they could practice on simulated near death patients instead of waiting for one to come in.
While I was in an ICU unit, the doc came by with some students. Since I have nice beefy arms and huge veins (the blood donation folks love me), the doc asked if I minded the students practicing on me.
Well, seeing that the trainees were young and cute, I said "sure" and let them stab me several times. Ok, they did pretty well, probably because their "patient" wasn't freaking out.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.