Today we celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day. The University Hospital Zurich (USZ) is organising a hospital hygiene film premiere with popcorn on 3 May. The lunch cinema starts at 12:00 in the large auditorium East at the University Hospital Zurich. In addition to the cinema experience for the public, the USZ is exploring new exciting paths in VR for employees.
Saving lives with VR training
In the hospital, people work under stress and constantly with their hands. There are various tricks that encourage staff to think about hygiene more often. Since it is a complex matter, it usually only works when the corresponding actions are unconscious and have been practised. Negligence in hygiene still costs the lives of over 600 people in Swiss hospitals.
Prof. Hugo Sax heads the Department of Hospital Hygiene at the University Hospital Zurich. To illustrate hygiene issues to staff, he and his 19-member team are also breaking new ground: the USZ has developed virtual reality goggles that illustrate to staff where they transmit bacteria in their everyday nursing work.
Train awareness
The 3D VR application Hand Hygiene Trainer - a project of Hospital Hygiene, humanlabZ.net and Innovation Management of the University Hospital Zurich aims to raise awareness of the problem. The software is intended to make the transmission visible and to train awareness. If you don't disinfect your virtual hands, everything you touch turns red.
If you want to learn more about the topic, you can find a detailed documentary programme by Puls Spezial here. Starting at minute 30, you can find a very brief insight into VR training. The test user, a nurse, says in the film, somewhat shocked, that the transmission has now become visible; when working, one is usually not even aware of it.
The Uni Spital Zurich is not the first hospital in Switzerland to experiment with VR. We have already reported on the use of VR in neurosurgery at the Inselspital Bern.
Source: SRF / Spitalhygien.net
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