Enhancing Psychomotor Skills in Manual Blood Pressure Measurement: The Impact of a 3D-Printed Assistive Device on Nursing/Midwifery Education
Description
The study aims to evaluate how a 3D printed assistive device helps students to effectively measure blood pressure (BP) manually, by enhancing their motor skills. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed for the data collection. The questionnaire had four parts with 12 total of questions: 1) Preparation phase, 2) Cuff Inflation and Pulse Detection, 3) Reading and Recording, 4) Overall Experience. The questionnaire consisted of four (4) open-ended questions and eight (8) closed-ended Likert scale questions. The Likert scale questions were either three, four or five points and had different options.
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Data collection took place in a clinical skills laboratory, where students typically learn clinical skills in preparation for clinical practice. Students were taught BP measurement by their laboratory coordinators and instructed to practise for about 2 weeks. During the study laboratory sessions, participants initially practised the blood pressure-taking technique with their laboratory coordinators. Following their module’s standard instructions, a sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope were used, in line with the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. The researchers introduced the 3D printed assistive device to the students during the practical session, after providing background information on the study and obtaining consent. The assistive device was then given to all participating students to use for practice. The researchers demonstrated to students how to use the 3D printed assistive device in the blood pressure taking clinical process, while adhering to the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. The assistive device was used to hold the diaphragm of the stethoscope in place (brachial artery) instead of participants holding it there by hand. At this phase, students were asked to continue practising while using the assistive device. Students’ reactions were observed and recorded in the study’s field journal when they were practising with and without the assistive device. When students completed practising blood pressure taking, they were asked to fill in the questionnaire by scanning a QR code. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V. 30) was used for the statistical analysis of the quantitative data. All participants provided informed consent, and the data collected were entirely anonymous.
Institutions
- University of Limerick