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“You will feel a little pinch,” is something you may have heard a nurse say when you’ve received an injection. Learning to give an injection precisely, with minimal discomfort to the patient, is a very important part of a nurse’s training.

Practice is key, but in this case, finding a good way to practice giving injections is problematic. Nursing students used to practice injections on oranges as an analog to a patient’s skin and underlying tissue. Nurses can’t practice on live patients, and plastic simulator models wear out after repeated injections. Also, marks left on the simulator models can leave an “x marks the spot” map for subsequent student learners to follow, defeating the discovery part of the exercise.

Teaching with leading-edge technology

This is what led a Kent State research team to begin working on a way to use mixed-reality and haptic tools as a virtual learning tool for nursing students. Kwangtaek Kim, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Kent State’s Department of Computer Science.

“Haptics focuses on the sense of touch and the device interface allows you to touch anything you want,” Kim said. “Meanwhile, mixed reality is the visually oriented interface, so you see virtual content through that device, along with what you are looking at.”

A true interdisciplinary collaboration

Kim is the principal investigator of the project. Jeremy Jarzembak, MSN, senior lecturer in Kent State's College of Nursing, and Robert Clements, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences, are co-principal investigators of the project. Also joining Kim are John Dunlosky, Ph.D., professor of psychology; Jennifer Shanoltzer, MSN; and Ann James, MSN, senior lecturers in the College of Nursing.

Kim’s work focuses on the haptics, Clements works on the mixed reality component and Jarzembak provides the nursing expertise. Together they have developed a working prototype of a device that uses a glove and a syringe that delivers haptic (touch) feedback that works in conjunction with a Microsoft HoloLens headset to help the user experience the sights and sensations of delivering an injection.

You can view a video about the project here: 

How it works

Essentially, the haptic glove makes you feel as if you are holding an invisible hand and arm. You can see the arm while looking through the visual interface. The syringe simulates the pressure of delivering the injection. And how accurate is the simulation? Jarzembak said, “From my perspective, I would say it’s pretty close. I was just in clinical yesterday and I saw a nurse inserting an IV. As it was going in, the nurse was explaining to the student. He said, ‘You can literally feel the ease of once you are hitting the vessel, after going through the skin.’ And that was what we tried to mimic as closely as possible.”

The (ICTL or Haptic Lab) in the Department of Computer Science at Kent State was founded in August 2019. The lab explores a wide range of projects involving haptic rendering, touch perception for VR feedback, realistic tactile feedback on touch screens and development of haptic-based technologies for assisting the disabled, medical imaging and human-computer interfaces.

Researchers in the ICTL Lab are exploring game-based rehabilitation for people with Parkinson's Disease

Research and innovation

Kim’s research was one of the topics presented at a recent Research and Innovation Forum sponsored by Kent State's Science of Learning Education (SOLE) Center and Research and Sponsored Programs (RASP). RASP sponsors two Research and Innovation forums each year.

Kent State has earned the prestigious R1 designation from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R1 status is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive, and Kent State is one of only five universities in Ohio to have earned it. This designation recognizes the high level of research activity on Kent State’s campuses.