Trans-Disciplinary Partnerships in IT Health Software Development: The Benefits to Learning

TLDR: The software detailed in this paper is unique in that it not only addresses the tacit needs to transform the passive observer into an active observer, but represents a trans-disciplinary partnership across the Colleges of Nursing, Engineering and Arts & Sciences in seeking a solution.

Abstract: Healthcare has followed the footsteps of the aviation industry with respect to teaching and learning. Pilots practice endless hours on simulators prior to flying solo. Likewise, healthcare workers increasingly use simulation to practice skills and clinical judgment prior to providing care to patients in a professional setting. With the growing interest in healthcare simulation, there are increasing needs to enhance the learning that occurs within a simulation to ensure the effectiveness of this practice in healthcare education. In an effort to meet this growing demand, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville builds technologies to enhance simulation learning. This paper presents the process and benefits of using trans-disciplinary teams to build healthcare products. Specifically, the paper discusses the experiences of a team of designers, engineers, and nurses in a university setting who work together with their students, to build and test healthcare products including educational tools to support simulation.KEY WORDS:simulation, trans-disciplinary partnership, educational software design, Health IT, graphic design classroom1. INTRODUCTIONJust as airline pilots use simulated flight experiences to gain understanding of the variability surrounding flight, so too does the field of healthcare use simulation scenarios to prepare for the clinical world beyond the classroom. Simulation activities provide opportunities to link theory and practice in an experiential learning environment (Cantrell, 2008) by placing learner(s) in settings that mimic medical facilities and asking them to perform an activity that will result in the learner's knowledge of identified skillsets. Simulation facilitators typically use one or more, or a combination of different types of simulation activities1 to achieve the classroom objectives. In particular, high-fidelity digitally enabled manikins are manipulated remotely via observation booths where a learner's every move in relationship to the manikin is documented and video recorded for discussion post-simulation.Due to the large learner to facilitator ratio in simulation classroom settings, it is necessary to have active participants, those performing patient care activities, and observers, those who are not participating, but watching. Typically observers watch on monitors outside the room or possibly inside the room, neither of which requires any type of interaction on behalf of the observers thereby resulting in a lack of engagement and subsequent missed opportunity for learning (Kolb, 1984).Simulation software used in today's classroom setting has only just begun to consider a simulation scenario that includes the passive observer. The software detailed in this paper is unique in that it not only addresses the tacit needs to transform the passive observer into an active observer, but represents a trans-disciplinary partnership across the Colleges of Nursing, Engineering and Arts & Sciences in seeking a solution. This blending of the team disciplines, in conjunction with a graphic design class served as a catalyst for a simulation software concept based on intuitive input and meaningful output.As a result of this collaboration and outcome, we argue the need for mobile health (mHealth) initiatives to seek solid partnerships between commercial development and higher education in responding to the increased demand of technology software in healthcare education. Aside from the clear benefit of beta-testing directly with the intended audience, the expertise that arises in trans-disciplinary partners working on-the-ground in educational institutions allows for outcomes focused on documented methods of learning within an experiential learning space.2. SIMULATION IN NURSING EDUCATIONSimulation based medical education is defined as any educational activity that utilizes simulation aides to replicate clinical scenarios (Al-Elg, 2010). …