Innovation
Use of a vibrotactile suit to help students understand when they are adopting the correct posture before, during and after performing patient handling moves. The haptic feedback allows self-correction quicker than when given verbal feedback and to a more accurate level.
What prompted innovation?
Stephen Wanless has worked in healthcare having an interest in advanced moving and handling training for many years and started developing the vibrotactile feedback suit following collaboration with colleagues from another faculty. As part of his doctoral studies he has demonstrated that the use of the vibrotactile suit, as well as making the training more interactive and enjoyable has a significant effect on how quickly students learn to adopt the correct posture and on how long they ’remember’ to adopt that posture over the course of their clinical placements.
What makes innovation different?
The use of the BCU-developed technology and the idea of using haptic responses to promote a medically neutral spinal posture which can potentially reduce their risk of developing back injuries in the future.
Changes in practice
All BCU health students will (once the data analysis is complete) be trained using the suit. We plan to follow up their maintenance of correct posture over a longer period as they go out into practice and into employment.
We are now working with a number of NHS Trusts to set up trials of the suit out in the ‘field’ during their mandatory staff training to see if it can have an impact on their learning, skills and retention of knowledge. In addition we are hoping to further develop the suit for a ‘civilian’ market and have had some interest from the sporting field with disciplines such as equestrian dressage and volleyball where a neutral posture is important.
Impact
The initial data from the PhD studies indicate an impact on student learning and this will be published when complete.
The suit has been demonstrated at a number of international conferences where it has generated a lot of interest. We want to obtain solid evidence of impact in a hospital setting in the UK before we go further afield so the impact on practice at the moment is limited to our students demonstrating good practice on placement and on employment, while also, reducing their risk of injury.
Dissemination
Range of media interest, TV reports, newspaper articles
Conference presentations
Wanless, S. Page, A. (2009) (Plenary session). Rolling a patient: a Motion Capture View. National Back Exchange Conference Sept 2009
Wanless, S. (2010) (Plenary session).The Next Stage………… National Back Exchange Conference Sept
Wanless, S. (2011) (Plenary session). Posture and positioning in patient handling. Geront Expo, Paris. May
Wanless, S. (2011) (Plenary session). Posture and positioning in patient handling. Linet International Comfort Conference, Prague. June
Wanless, S. (2011) (Plenary session). Posture and positioning with ITU. BACCN Conference, Newcastle. Sept
Wanless, S. Wiseman, S.A.(2011) (Plenary session). Utilisation of postural awareness in Patient Handling Training. National Back Exchange Conference. Sept
Wanless, S. (2011) (Plenary session). How can patient handling equipment affect the posture of patients and staff; A Latera Approach. National Back Exchange Conference. Sept
Wanless, S. (2012) (Plenary session). Improving the effectiveness of motor skills learning in moving and handling training for the health care environment. Liko Safe Patient Handling Conference, Lulea, Sweden
Wanless, S. (2012) (Plenary session). Sit to stand; A Lateral Approach. National Back Exchange Conference. Sept
Wanless, S. (2013) (Keynote). Improving the effectiveness of motor skills learning in moving and handling training for the health care environment. Liko Safe Patient Handling Conference, Lulea, Sweden
Wanless, S. (2013) (Workshop). The importance of posture when hoisting a patient. Liko Safe Patient Handling Conference, Lulea, Sweden