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Are Touchscreens Robbing a Generation of Surgeons of Their Dexterity? (bbc.com)
schwit1 shared this article from the BBC:
A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients. Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical. "It is important and an increasingly urgent issue," says Prof Kneebone, who warns medical students might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew. "It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things - cutting things out, making things - that is no longer the case," says Prof Kneebone.
The professor, who teaches surgery to medical students, says young people need to have a more rounded education, including creative and artistic subjects, where they learn to use their hands. Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.... "A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills. Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument. Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says. "We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
Interestingly, much of the professor's research is on simulations, according to his web page at Imperial College London, where he leads "an unorthodox and creative research group" that uses professional actors with inanimate models to create realistic clinical encounters, as well as "low-cost, portable yet highly convincing environments such as the 'inflatable operating theatre'."
The professor, who teaches surgery to medical students, says young people need to have a more rounded education, including creative and artistic subjects, where they learn to use their hands. Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.... "A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills. Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument. Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says. "We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
Interestingly, much of the professor's research is on simulations, according to his web page at Imperial College London, where he leads "an unorthodox and creative research group" that uses professional actors with inanimate models to create realistic clinical encounters, as well as "low-cost, portable yet highly convincing environments such as the 'inflatable operating theatre'."
My hand writing has become a scrawl.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The real world is analog, as are all desirable interactions. Think of weaving or loving or trekking. Digiboi gamr-sluts pander the trivial ... promote the lax ... encourage the slovenly.
Touchscreens are only a part of the problem, and the article doesn't specifically single them out. Otherwise, a nice article about the practical downsides of our consumer-oriented culture.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
What TFA is lacking: Any evidence whatsoever that dexterity is actually declining.
It is not news that some old geezer thinks the world is going to hell because kids-these-days are corrupted by some new-fangled thing. That has been happening since Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth in ancient Athens.
Knicking your bladder isnâ(TM)t about knowledge, itâ(TM)s about dexterity.
This really surprised me. I was under the impression, using a smartphone was a feat of manual dexterity in itself. They're not particularly easy to type on, for instance.
Would be nice if we had more research into why smartphone usage inhibits finer motor control for other activities. In my perspective, this doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Exactly.
Also, if 'stitching or sewing up patients' is an important skill for medical students, shouldn't they specifically be taught how to do so? I know I'd like the quality of my stitches not to be dependent on whether the surgeon liked his arts and crafts when he was a kid.
Many (mostly boys) are playing video games with console.
Those are totally different skills
I don't know whether this guy is a just some quack
No, he knows what he's talking about. How can you doubt a guy called 'Kneebone' ?
It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school. Nerves have lost the needed flexibility. Perhaps it is like a foreign language: most people can learn another language perfectly only if they start at early age. Start in your twenties and you can never pronounce it like a native, even if your vocabulary and grammar are ok.
No, but sorry. For the vast majority of kids there are still countless activities every day helping them improve their manual dexterity.
Maybe years ago, but I'm not so sure about now. I have a few friends that work at different school districts and they all say that students are losing the ability to write for periods of time. Everything is now typing and touch screens. Schools (around here anyway) have cut down on written aspects of their courses and don't do much in the way of pushing writing. Kids have laptops in class and submit homework online, and as a result they don't have as much manual dexterity as the older generation does.
I also see a lot of new parents just giving their kids ipads/iphones to keep them busy. Are children actually doing arts and crafts as we used to know it, or are they now just messing around on instagram and snapchat? (or whatever the app of the week is). From what I've seen and heard (also from those that work at schools), its all about the social media apps now.
Also, alot of these "elite" medical students have led lives structured far beyond what many parents would consider normal.
My daughter has a friend who brought an MCAT study guide to (mandatory) school sleepaway camp. She spends hours on scholastics and reading, but does little else. She does help in her parents restaurant, so there is probably manual dexterity involved for her.
However, there are plenty of kids whose parents are similarly driving them and working professional careers where there is little exposure to manual dexterity activities.
Cheap storage VM.
It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school. Nerves have lost the needed flexibility. Perhaps it is like a foreign language: most people can learn another language perfectly only if they start at early age. Start in your twenties and you can never pronounce it like a native, even if your vocabulary and grammar are ok.
Don't have mod points today....
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
There's more to being a good surgeon than stitching and sewing. There's a lot of cutting things, and knowing what to cut and how to cut them.
Since I have had to type, over the decades my handwriting had become horrible. Compare it from when I was a child, and it's completely different.
The same with my signature. Touch screen, Pffft! Hasn't been around that long.
Uh, have you seen the handwriting skills of anyone armed with a PhD? The Dr. Chicken Scratch joke has been around for a lot longer than even keyboards. And no matter how much or little I put pencil to paper, it doesn't change my guitar playing. I think you may be reaching a bit here. One type of activity requiring manual dexterity is not synonymous with all others.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school.
This is pure conjecture. There is no evidence that it is true. I have learned physical skills later in life, and so have many other people.
This is in addition to no evidence that the "loss of dexterity" even exists in the first place. It seems highly improbable. A generation ago students used computers with a mouse and keyboard. Today they still do that, but also use touchpads. Why would using your finger instead of a mouse result in less dexterity? It seems just as plausible that using the finger would cause better dexterity.
Do you really think that people accepted into medical school at Imperial College get there by playing video games on their cell phones all day?
most people can learn another language perfectly only if they start at early age
What makes this factoid interesting is that it is unusual. Other than learning a language, there are very few skills that are "locked out" by a certain age. With most skills, it is the total hours of study or practice that count, not the starting age.
So there are two explanations for the "problem" described in TFA:
1. There has been a vast decline in the motor skills and dexterity in the billion people born since touch screens were invented, but for some reason nobody noticed until now, and the journalist just forgot to cite the mountains of evidence that the good doctor has meticulously compiled.
2. Some guy is getting grumpy in his old age.
Apply Occam's razor.
Like so many boys in the modern world, the distance between twitch and stitch remains undiscovered country.
What Kneebone is probably neglecting most seriously is the rampant inflation of admissions standards, in order to cope with the rampant inflation of medical knowledge. The good, old fashioned childhood arranging wooden alphabet blocks into long serpentine arcs is hardly an express train into modern medical school, no matter how hard you "choo choo".
I suspect it's not too late to acquire adequate dexterity and sensitivity in early adulthood. It's a practical problem in neuroplasticity which probably requires little more than patience. Sort-of-relevant example: I used not to be able to move my smallest three toes (per foot) independently but I found that after holding two toes and moving the other for a few minutes a day, my toes began moving independently after about a week. Stronger example of re-mapping (mentioned by Norman Doidge in an interview earlier this year): experimental subjects were fitted with goggles that blinded them completely. Within 24 hours fMRI showed that their visual cortices were substantially repurposed to dealing with sound and touch. As far as I know the subjects recovered once the goggles came off.
if 'stitching or sewing up patients' is an important skill for medical students, shouldn't they specifically be taught how to do so?
They are. They start with dummies, then cadavers, then real patients. When my daughter gashed her foot, I assumed the woman in the ER stitching her wound was a nurse, but she was a medical student. The doctor was just watching.
Surgical stitching isn't like sewing cloth. The needle is curved, and it is manipulated with pliers rather than fingers. It looks hard, but if you try it, it is actually easier than the way a seamstress would stitch. You can see better without your fingers in the way, and the pliers give you better leverage.
Hello, meet Dr. Kneebone's assistant, Dr. Hipbone. Dr. Hipbone's connected to Dr. Thighbone by marriage to Dr. Shinbone.
Oh dear, my hipbone is connected to the thighbone by the acetabulofemoral joint: I must be doing it all wrong.
A friend was teaching in the local university's Drama department about ten years ago and found that most freshmen were initially hopeless when given practical tasks related to costume. Her interpretation of this observation is that they had been under pressure to perform academically for years and practised fine motor skills with nothing smaller than a pen. Those that applied themselves were able learn reasonable sewing skills.
Certainly. Please see the practice of Drs. Thighbone and Shinbone.
Evolution in action! Just one generation and we're already losing the ability to use our fingers as we did in the past. Hopefully it's not gonna be inherited just yet (epigenetics and shat), so that we have time to adjust the curriculum to make children use their fingers more.
For sure, but I suspect you can tell a bit about a surgeon's skill by looking at his stitches. If he takes the time to do it well and attends to the details, he probably extends at least that much attention to the more serious work. I just had foot surgery a couple of months ago, and was taken care of by one of the best podiatric surgeons in the state. His stitches were immaculate, and left very little scarring.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Yes, I've seen him on TV with Dr. Slim Goodbody MD.
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People trying to eke the good out of video games pointed out that they radically improve hand-eye coordination, and in later generations of gaming systems and choices, spacial positioning and manipulation, scene analysis and pattern detection, and the ability to more easily comprehend and learn new systems.
Even more recently, there's been folks claiming that they improve communication and leadership skills.
I'm not going to go over the merits of those claims, but note that you can find anecdotal data to back up either side here, just as valid and nuanced as the original article (which is to say, not very).
Pull back just a bit though, and you can see that this is little more than the old chestnut that starts, "Back in my day, ." The corruption of our youth and the loss of our values is a pretty tired drumbeat, and until you do the studies, your "concern" that students are losing a necessary skillset is little more than a concern that they're doing things differently, and you're obsolescing.
Sorry, but I'm not buying that not writing stuff out is the culprit. We've had typewriters for ages and anyone who's bound to be a surgeon was likely to have access to and use one. Hell I couldn't turn in a hand written paper 20 years ago in high school.
This probably has more to do with more people becoming surgeons. Similar to how grade averages dropped not because people were getting dumber but because we stopped shipping little jimmy off to the factory for a 3.8 GPA.
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And why focus on surgeons? They are hardly the only folks that work with their hands.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
Apply Occam's razor.
I did, and it told me that people often present false dichotomies on the Internet.
While the idea of a language acquisition window is complex and, like many ideas, not fully understood, it is mostly regarded as false. The article presents some interesting conjecture, but I agree that it provides very little evidence to support an actual "loss of dexterity". The pendulum doesn't always realize it swings.
...that have no physical dexterity.
Medical school is competitive. Students learn early to work to the test.
They aren't going to practice dexterity unless you test for it.
Keep this and add it to the bin of information that points out the growing virtualization of life in all things.
E Proelio Veritas.