Articles
Will Young, lecturer in Rehabilitation Psychology (Ageing Neuroscience), Brunel University, London
Students in clinical sciences such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy are required to sit many rigorous exams to test their theoretical and clinical knowledge. However, once graduated, students often report that it can be difficult to link their university-based learning to practical situations faced in hospitals and other clinical environments.
At Brunel University in London, we have been looking at ageing simulation suits that let wearers experience some of the physical deficits that can be experienced in older age. The hope is that such experience can enhance empathy and effective clinical management.
The wearable suits, called GERT suits, were purchased by the Department of Clinical Sciences under the Brunel Educational Excellence Fund, and are able to mimic signs of conditions often linked with older age, such as stroke, Parkinson’s, cataracts, and sensory problems that can affect balance. Our project involves designing everyday scenarios that will help healthcare professionals experience some of the challenges their patients may face.
Restricted movement
There are several parts to the suit. Joints including ankles, knees, elbows, neck and hands are stiffened using neoprene wraps and braces. Overshoes dull sensation in the feet, risking falls. A neck brace restricts head movement, glasses mimic different sight problems such as tunnel vision, macular degeneration and cataracts, and headphones simulate deafness. Finally, gloves are worn that, by remote operation, electrically stimulate muscles in the hands and arms at specific frequencies, simulating involuntary tremor.
These difficulties are things that you can’t fully convey through classroom teaching, so students wear the suits to do everyday things such as buy a coffee or play cards, giving them first-hand experience of what functioning with a range of physical conditions feels like. These experiences are primarily designed to help students consolidate information taught within the course. However, using the suits in teaching has led to some unexpected results.
When using the suits, students have reported that the experience helps them to generate ideas about current or future technologies that might provide meaningful benefits to older adults in their daily lives. So far, suggestions have included augmenting tactile feedback available on the handles of walking aids and in vibrotactile straps attached to the lower leg (for patients with diabetic neuropathy – reduced sensation in their feet), devices to alert visually impaired walkers of trip hazards, and visual cues to help people with Parkinson’s walk more safely. We are organising sessions for students in clinical sciences and design and engineering, with the hope that, through interdisciplinary discussions, practical and innovative ideas might emerge.
Social isolation
However, the most profound effect was social. Between tasks, students not wearing the suits will socialise and talk among themselves. In these moments, the students wearing the suits are no longer the centre of attention, and in their feedback they described a profound sense of social isolation, being unable to communicate with their peers, and left out of conversations. This experience clearly had a profound influence on students, with some remarking that it was quite upsetting to know that people were having a fun time around you, yet you were unable to join in without consistently asking people to repeat themselves. This experience also led to ideas regarding future mobile technologies that might facilitate social functioning in older adults with visual and hearing deficits.
Students within clinical sciences are in a unique position to maximise the practical implications of these experiences. On one hand their training is steeped in assessment and interventions for difficulties in movement and everyday function. On the other, as the future of healthcare they see potential in modern technologies such as smart phones.
Therefore, through this project, we expect that practical suggestions will emerge that incorporate the use of modern technology to provide domestic solutions for remote healthcare, such as tracking conditions over time and providing innovative methods for rehabilitation. We hope that this potential alongside the benefits of personal experience will result in palpable benefits in future rehabilitation of older people.