Enhanced design, improved audio pronunciation make for user-friendly learning
May 15, 2015 – Learning to name and identify surgical instruments has never been easier or more engaging for Saskatchewan Polytechnic Nursing students. Sask Polytech’s School of Nursing has released an update to InstruMentor™, a smartphone application that features photos, descriptions and audio pronunciation of the names of more than 70 surgical instruments.
“When students log in to the updated InstruMentor™ on their phones or tablets, they’ll discover that the app has a sleeker design and is more user-friendly than the first version of InstruMentor™,” says Eli Ahlquist, program head, Perioperative Nursing, who led the development of the tool.
The update includes 3D rotatable images for all standard instruments, enabling students to view the instruments from a variety of angles. It also features a human voice for the Canadian-specific pronunciation guide instead of a computer-generated voice. “The pronunciation function on InstruMentor™ is particularly helpful because many surgical instruments are named after their inventor, making pronunciation sometimes tricky,” says Ahlquist. In addition, the updated app has a more intuitive interface, which makes it easier for faculty to update and customize the app’s content, including its interactive testing feature.
Sask Polytech created the first version of InstruMentor™ in 2013 to help students in an online course in surgical instrument recognition. The app has since replaced the course’s cumbersome and more expensive textbook and is used by students in Sask Polytech’s Perioperative Nursing and Medical Device Reprocessing Technician programs. Medical students as well as sales representatives at medical supply companies are also using InstruMentor™.
“It’s really gratifying to see faculty improve upon what was already an innovative tool,” says Dr. Netha Dyck, dean of the School of Nursing. “InstruMentor™ provides easy access to important information not only for our students, but also for others in the health-care field.”
To find out more about InstruMentor™, go to www.instrumentor.ca.