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HomeGrown Solution: Portable Speakers for Manikin Voice Work-Around

Title

Portable Speakers for Manikin Voice Work-Around

Submitted By

Mary Clare Smith

HomeGrown Solution Number

370

Identification of the Problem

Voice conferencing applications often fail even in high-fidelity manikins. Low-fidelity manikins may have limited applications in scenarios that require clinician-patient communication. To enhance fidelity and immerse learners in realistic communication with simulated patient manikins, a variety of commercially available, low-cost portable speakers and microphones can be used to overcome technology limitations and glitches that render manikins silent and reduce opportunity to simulate important conversations.

Unique Idea

We incorporated low-cost, portable speakers and headsets to provide pillow speakers for manikins that either lacked voice conferencing technology, or for which the technology did not function reliably. Our students most frequently commented in our simulation evaluations that communicating with the manikin using glitchy, unreliable voice conferencing interfered with their buy-in to the scenarios. Feedback, muffled, garbled voice-conferencing, and inaudible speech caused confusion for students and faculty. The simple solution is a portable, chargeable, wireless speaker which is placed under the manikin-patient's pillow, and a headset with microphone worn by the simulation operator/facilitator in the control room. The solution provided audible, clear, reliable, real-time, seamless manikin-student communication.

Objectives

Design a low-cost, reliable solution to enhance the realism of patient-clinician communication in the simulated learning environment.

Outcomes:
  • Design a low-cost, reliable solution to enhance the realism of patient-clinician communication in the simulated learning.
  • Students will engage in real-time, realistic voice communication with both low and high-fidelity manikins.

Supplies/Ingredients

  1. Low or high fidelity patient simulator manikin in a patient bed or on a stretcher with a pillow.
  2. Portable speaker and headset (commercially available), fully-charged.
  3. Simulation Operator, facilitator to where headset and act as voice of the manikin patient in the control room.

Steps to Creating the Solution

  1. Set-up manikin and simulated care environment according to simulation scenario with appropriate moulage.
  2. Fully charge headset and speaker.
  3. Place portable speaker under patient/manikin pillow in simulated care environment, powered on. If using a high-fidelity manikin, once controlling laptop is powered on and connected to the manikin, turn off voice conferencing to avoid echo and interference of sound artifacts.
  4. At the start of the simulation, after orientation to the environment and presimulation activities, simulation facilitator powers on the headset microphone in the control room.
  5. Test sound and adjust volume using dial on speaker as needed.
  6. Begin simulating, speaking into the headset microphone to respond as the patient to students questions and comments. Facilitators in the control room may intermittently turn off the headset to speak privately to faculty when needed.
  7. At the end of the simulation activity, remember to power off the speaker and microphone and recharge as needed for the next scenario.

Images

Portable speaker, headset, manikin in a patient bed

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