faculty focus
Bring the home to work
A university has made a mock-up of a patient’ s residence for healthcare students. By Aileen Macalintal
Health science and nursing students get the opportunity to provide care in a patient’ s home, without actually visiting a residence, through a new immersive domestic laboratory at the University of Ballarat.
“ This space offers learning experiences that are within a client’ s world rather than the usual laboratories that recreate‘ hospital’ type settings,” said acting head of the school of health sciences Sally Wellard.
With more services that rely on recovery and long-term support for people in their homes, interaction between clients and health professionals is changing, so students need to keep up.
Wellard said students need to adapt their approach to different individual situations. A student who wants to learn care-giving needs to learn how to deal with people in their own home environment.
“ This facility is of benefit for students in the disciplines of nursing, midwifery, paramedicine, psychology, social work, and exercise physiology,” she said.“ It also provides staff in health professions the opportunity for professional development.”
The laboratory has a 50-seat auditorium, which has a direct view of a one-bedroom unit through a glass wall. This teaching space, known as the SHELS( Simulated Home Environment Learning Space), has facilities for live video transmission. Videos and live feeds from the“ house” can be streamed in the auditorium or other learning spaces.
To create different types of home settings, furnishings can be changed in the lounge room, bedroom, bathroom, toilet, and kitchen eating areas. For example, the house can be changed from an older person’ s home to a young person’ s flat.
“ We have recreated a young person’ s home for a party where paramedics had to retrieve someone who was unconscious – the lighting was poor and there were many hazards students needed to identify and work around to develop a successful outcome,” said Wellard.
Next to the laboratory, which is at the Mount Helen campus, is an adjoining space that houses a fully fitted-out ambulance and a vehicle that can be used to safely transfer patients.
The laboratory’ s funding of $ 950,000 came from the federal government’ s education investment fund. ■
www. campusreview. com. au Issue 2 2013 | 29