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Training Nurses With Virtual Veins

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the watch-where-you're-pointing-that-thing dept.

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."

5 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. How to draw blood? by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's simple, you just take a nice red Sharpie....

  2. Self-describing medical instructions by JBMcB · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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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    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  3. (Almost) First Post! by z0ink · · Score: 5, Funny

    I almost had the first post, but I was too busy using the virtual hand to give myself a virtual hand jo^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hback massage....

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    Steal This Sig
  4. How silly by wolfemi1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My mother is a nurse. This will NEVER be as cheap, or as realistic, as having the students practice on each other, like she did in medical school.

  5. Limited Usefulness by klausner · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a retired paramedic who has stuck needles into literally thousands of veins, I can tell you that this kind of tool is of limited value. Even if they can exactly mimic the tactile sensations of a needle penetrating skin and then entering a vein, that's only part of the issue. A much bigger obstacle to be overcome is the social indoctrination that you don't go around stabbing people and making them bleed. Once most nursing/medical/paramedic students learn to just DO IT, their problems drop way off.

    The traditional training method of having students practice on each other has a lot to reccommend it as a means of overcoming such reluctance. Anyway, a practice model would only get used in class a few times per student, and then they will be out assaulting real patients anyway. Increased training costs for limited benefit.