hii, i'm back with day 2 of the sparkseekers event at ngee ann polytechnic! (～￣▽￣)～
on the 2nd day, we went to jamiyah nursing home to learn from the nurses!
when we first entered the nursing home, i took in the dim lighting and wide open space with half-lidded eyes. unfortunately, i was quite dazed with tiredness at that time. however, once i saw the residents gathered around a projector screen that looked like the one in my classroom, i immediately perked up. it turns out that they were watching a movie!
this was the open space i passed by in jamiyah! the residents were seated behind the tables, facing a large canvas screen with a movie being projected onto it. look at the man in blue in the wheelchair! the direction he's looking at was probably where the screen was located.
the nursing students had come along with us to the nursing home, and now they led us into the elevators, pressing for the 3rd floor. despite all of us being packed tightly in the lift, i didn't find it hot or stuffy at all. later on, i noticed that this was due to the special lighting in the lift, which probably reduced the amount of heat it was emiting. how cool was that?
once we got to the 3rd floor, we entered the presentation room, where the clinical instructor talked about the career pathways available to nurses.
one of his colleagues, a nurse care manager, said that aspiring nurses should first get some hands-on experience in a hospital setting before deciding whether they should move to long-term care. he explained that hospital nurses had a fast-paced working life and handled many cases simultaneously. in this way, they could witness many different diseases and symptoms, accumulating the necessary skills to deal with them. in long-term care, nurses often form deeper bonds with the patients (or residents). he also mentioned that it was more satisfying, as they got to spend more time with their patients, thereby ensuring that they were adequately cared for.
after their presentation, the nurses did a hands-on demonstration of a patient lift system.
a patient lift system is a mechanical or powered patient lifting device designed to safely transfer individuals with limited mobility from one position or surface to another, such as from a bed to a wheelchair, or from a chair to a bath
this time, my friend didn't volunteer as she was quite frightened by the mechanism. as we watched one of our students get strapped in and lifted, i couldn't help but find that it must've been extremely comfortable. one of the nurses even said this:
it's like the thing you put babies into... a cradle!
his comment made all of us giggle.
after that demonstration, we headed over to the nursing care station where we learnt how the nurses actually engaged the residents. the first booth included a showcase of a $20,000 mechanical baby seal with fluffy fur, huge eyes and a soothing purr. unfortunately, i could not find any photos of it online.
just kidding!
this robotic baby seal, nicknamed paro, was designed to soothe patients.
paro is an advanced interactive robot developed by AIST, a Japanese research facility headquartered in Tokyo. it allows the documented benefits of animal therapy to be administered to patients in environments such as hospitals and extended care facilities where the presence of live animals pose a challenge. paro has been found to reduce patient stress and stimulate interaction between patients and caregivers. additionally, it has been shown to have a psychological effect on patients, improving their relaxation and motivation levels. it has been voted as the World’s Most Therapeutic Robot certified by the Guinness World Records.
it learns from you, and feels just like a real, lovable pet in its natural responses. this is because paro has an array of sensors, and develops a personality over time that corresponds with how people play with it. it can recognize the circadian rhythm of morning, afternoon, and night. encased with five kinds of sensors: tactile, light, auditory, temperature, and posture, it can perform many tasks like recognizing light and dark, feeling strokes and detecting the amount of pressure, understanding when it is being held and even recognizing the direction of sounds. combined with the memory it has been provided with, it can recognize its name, greetings, and praise. on top of that, it remembers interactions and adapts, expressing feelings through noises, movements and facial expressions.
paro responds to petting by moving its tail and opening and closing its eyes. it was designed to actively seek out eye contact, respond to touch, cuddle with people, remember faces, and learn actions that generate a favorable reaction. paro's creator said this:
Just like animals used in pet therapy, Paro can help relieve depression and anxiety—but it never needs to be fed and doesn’t die.
not everything about paro is adorable, though. Dr. Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT’s Initiative on Technology and the Self, argued that robots like paro provide an illusion of a relationship, and those who find human relationships challenging may turn to robots for companionship instead. this poses serious problems to humans, especially the emotionally vulnerable residents in nursing homes.
moving on, another interactive activity that the residents participated in was a pool noodle smashing contest. yeah, it sounds weird.
it works like this:
there's a touch-screen projected onto the floor (this technology is called an interactive floor projection)
each resident gets one pool noodle
the nurse selects one minigame for them to play
the objective of each minigame is to use the pool noodle to hit (smash) the moving item, which varies from game to game
the most popular game is the chicken minigame, wherein the residents have to hit chickens to collect eggs. its popularity was attributed to the residents associating it with their youth where they coexisted with animals like chickens and pigs. such interactions with animals are hard to come by in the urban city they now live in.
although interactive floor projections were made to respond when people stepped on them, the elderly have difficulty moving, so they use pool noodles instead.
this was my favourite part of the nursing home tour. i loved the chicken minigame as hearing the frenzied clucking of the chickens while watching my fellow students mercilessly bashing at their bodies was ridiculously amusing.
the last part of the tour was a demonstration of putting on personal protection equipment (PPE), which was very similar to what we went through on day 1, in the surgical simulation. after one of our students went through the whole routine of putting on and removing her PPE, we played a short kahoot game.
after the quiz, we spun a wheel and received a prize for our effort! my friend and i didn't bring our phones, so my friend borrowed one from the nursing student who was accompanying us. after spinning the wheel, my friend received a cup as her prize.
muttering under her breath, she said to me, "what am i going to do with this?"
"give it to me," i jokingly replied.
you can imagine my surprise when she actually handed the cup over to me! puzzled, i asked her, "really?" and she simply nodded her head.
when i returned home from jamiyah nursing home, i took a sweeeeet long nap and woke up at 9pm. after having a late dinner with my family, i was preparing to watch one episode of house M.D. with my mom when i saw the cup!
resting comfortably in my ergonomic chair, i cradled a cup of hot milo and switched on the tv. at that moment, next to mom, i thought of the nursing home, of having a great lunch with my dad, of spending time with my family, and of watching house M.D.
writing this blog has made me think about one of the house M.D. episodes i had watched, wherein the patient had been blogging every part of her life (´。＿。｀) her boyfriend, being the normal person he is, was concerned about their privacy. he said this: i don't want our lives to be their entertainment! recently, i experienced this exact same thing with my own blog. she said that it was simply because she valued her personal life, and that it wasn't my fault at all. still, i feel slightly irked by this. after all, i'm supposed to be able to write anything i want in my blog, even if it concerns touchy subjects or other people's business. especially if it concerns other people's business. unfortunately, i'll have to live with this restraint, because i live in a real world with many different people and i have to make compromises to achieve harmony. otherwise i'll end up pissing everyone off ⊙﹏⊙∥
over the past 2 days, i've been going to ngee ann poly for their sparkseekers event (≧∇≦)ﾉ it's related to their healthscience department, which is actually quite small since they only have 2 courses: nursing and optometry (eye care). they have around 5 lecture theaters though (all air-conditioned)! on the first day, we visited the various simulation labs in the school! the first one was a fake patient model that could blink and breathe. it was hooked up to a heart monitor. the nursing students demonstrated how they would usually approach a patient: student: hello ma'am, i am _ and these are my colleagues. how are you feeling? patient: i'm fine. a bit tired, is all. student: okay, we are going to check your blood pressure now. student: okay, it seems like your blood pressure is fine. how are you feeling now? patient: very tired, i feel like i'm about to fall asleep. i... student: ma'am? hello? ma'am, are you awake? student: patient has lost consciousness, co...
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