27 - Carey Mather

Title

Helping Hands: Transforming practice through innovation in supervision

Author(s)

Carey Mather*, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health
Tony Barnett, Centre for Rural Health
Weidong Huang, School of Engineering and ICT, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
Vlasti Broucek, Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies
Annette Saunders, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health

Subtheme

Supervision as Pedagogy

Presentation Type

Spotlight on Practice

Room

Meeting Room

Time

14.20-15.20

Abstract

Development of knowledge and procedural skills takes time and practice. Clinical guidance can be resource intensive and time limited. Although it is important to guide and support students and registered health professionals when undertaking new or infrequent procedures, geographic distance or inability of expert practitioners to be present means direct supervision during work integrated learning can be problematic.
Helping Hands is a wearable, portable, hands-free, low cost tele-assistance system comprised of two networked laptops, a head-mounted display worn by the recipient and a display screen used remotely by the instructor. The technology supports unmediated remote gesture guidance by augmenting the object with the Helping Hands of the instructor.
This ethics approved study (H15041) using hand hygiene as the task to test the hypothesis, suggesting no difference between groups that received  direct instruction and those who received remote guidance was undertaken. A field trial was also conducted to test whether the system was easy to learn and a useful for receiving guidance. A protocol to objectively test effectiveness of hand hygiene was developed to find whether the system was acceptable as a learning and teaching strategy.
The results of the laboratory-based study, (paired t-tests) found there was no difference in confidence of groups before (0.65, 13, p=0.53) or after receiving the instructions (0.40, 13, p=0.69). There also was no difference between groups in satisfactorily undertaking the procedure (objectively measured) before (p=0.09) or following instruction (p=0.35).
This study demonstrated the Helping Hands strategy does not compromise learning outcomes and enables remote learning and teaching supervision to be accessible to students and clinicians. This innovation has the potential to transform learning and promote partnerships during work integrated learning. This presentation will show how the project was undertaken with specific focus on demonstrating the potential of this innovation to transform learning and teaching remotely.
References
Alem, L., Huang, W. and Tecchia, F. (2011) Supporting the Changing Roles of Maintenance Operators in Mining: A Human Factors Perspective. The Ergonomics Open J. 4: 81-92.
Lee, K. (2012). Augmented Reality in Education and Training. TechTrends, 56(2), 13-21.
Mather, C.A. (2010). Human interface technology: Enhancing tertiary nursing education to ensure workplace readiness”, International Technology, Education and Development Conference Proceedings, 8th - 10th of March, Valencia, Spain EJ ISBN 978-84-613-5538-9.
WHO. (2016) Five moments for hand hygiene, viewed 24 October 2016, http://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/Five_moments/en/.

Resource

Download presentation (requires University of Tasmania login) (PDF)