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Hi, I’m Ira. Assistive tech ideas for university student in clinical placement?

Ira

I’m supporting a university student with impaired fine motor skills who is studying to work in the allied health professions. A clinical role and practical placements require tasks such as compiling and updating patient records, formulating written communications with the wider team and being gable to handle resources such as craft cards to prompt them through consultation procedures.

Hopefully your experience and knowledge will offer some new ideas to suggest and help ease their journey through what is a challenging degree without having to negotiate accessibility needs.

Thanks for reading!

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Ira

Hello!
I’m supporting a university student with impaired fine motor skills. they are studying to work in the allied health professions. A clinical role and practical placements require tasks such as compiling and updating patient records, formulating written communications with patients and the wider team and being able to handle resources such as craft cards or prompt cards to guide them through consultation procedures and key clinical procedures.

I am looking for advice and ideas around assistive technology that is NHS and GDPR compliant for such tasks, as might be suggested for someone having experienced a stroke and lasting physical impairments in line with this. Ideally they should be able to add notes to a file in situ (if possible) but hope that there are some ideas and options you might know of.

Hopefully your experience and knowledge will help ease their journey through what is a challenging degree without having to negotiate accessibility needs.

Thank you very much for reading!

Cher_Alumni

Hello @Ira and a warm welcome to our online community, how are you today?

It sounds like you're being a thoroughly supportive ally, and I understand the need to find tech to make the learning journey as easy as possible.

My first thought was, has the student applied for Disabled Student's Allowance (DSA) and had a 'needs assessment' as part of this process? If not, this is a good opportunity to speak with someone trained in what tech is available to support with studies and what DSA budget is available to contribute towards costs. If a DSA assessment has already taken place and needs have changed, then I'd recommend asking for a review.

Likewise, has the student been in touch with the Disability Services department of their respective university? They normally put together a study support plan for disabled students, and if the impairment is causing difficulties with specific tasks, could liaise with clinical staff to think of adjustments or alternative ways of working.

I'd be interested to hear what other suggestions our members have too

Wishing you both the very best.

For your information - I've amended the title of this thread to reflection your question and moved it to our Aids, adaptations and equipment category to help others spot it and reply. I've also merged your threads together to help others keep track of the discussion.

durhamjaide2001

I'm interested in this topic as I'm always interested in different conditions . For example.
Dementia
epalepsy
T1 diabeties
cystic fibrosis
autism
peg feeding
hoisting
dialysis
behaviour
mental health
However there's not really a course suited to me with all those topics as I also struggle with fine and groce motor skills

Ira

@Cher_Scope thank you for taking the time to respond and place this post in the correct category.

The student in question is an international student, so I am not sure to what extent they are entitled to DSA but from what the eligibility criteria indicates, might be a potential Avenue to explore if they haven’t already. Thanks for that!

I don’t support this student directly and was merely asked to whether I might know of any useful apps etc that could help for the tasks required in their practical placements which got me curious and it turns out there isn’t any discernible protocol. I’ll check with the student about how much support they have/would like since I don’t want to get ahead of myself without their wanting my input.

My thoughts were around a voice to text app that could transcribe clinical notes, however the issue is I’m getting this transferred to patient notes very promptly, as well as needing to be secure and GDPR compliant. Hopefully others will have some suggestions and ideas to share.

Thank you again!

L_Volunteer

International students can access DSA based on certain additional criteria @Ira. These include:

Being a student on a UK course at a UK university that lasts at least a year
Qualify for student finance from Student Finance England

Hearing from the student from their perspective is really key! I really appreciate that you value this. Have you looked into Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software?

Ira

@L_Volunteer, thanks for the info and especially the signpost to Dragon NaturallySpeaking Software - I hadn’t come across this before and none of my searches brought that up so I’m glad you highlighted this. Thank you so much. I’ll be seeing this student next week and will check with them what support they would find useful, if any.

L_Volunteer

There's also an in-built feature in Microsoft Word @Ira. However, it's not as high-quality as Dragon and often doesn't know what you are trying to say! Often writes completely different words as a result.

As a result, I wouldn't advise this as strongly. Have you met with this student yet and, if so, would you like to tell us a little more about how they are doing and what they are looking for?

Hoping we can support you both through this if support is wanted. Otherwise, we'll just wish you both the best of luck and thank you for being caring enough to approach us. It says a lot about you

Ira

Hi @L_Volunteer
I have made contact with the student - I’ve offered what input I gained from this community as well as sharing information regarding SDA. The student has regular meetings with members of staff and the disability support team to adjust their support as their studies and needs change with the demands of the course.

I don’t believe it will be productive to actively participate in those meetings as too many agents can complicate things, but am glad that O could add to what hopefully means this student is receiving the best possible support and the workplace and studies are being made accessible to them.
thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge, it gave me some new awareness and I feel that any educator ought to have at least a notion of how to promote accessibility within their organisation or profession.

Ira

@durhamjaide2001 I can see how certain professions in the Allied Health Professions might not be easily accessible to you (without knowing anything at all about your personal experience of disability) but wondered whether you had considered topics such as public health and policy making? These might be worth exploring if studying is something you would like to pursue - the subject matter that interests you is applied and considered on a larger scale and can be a fascinating topic. All the best.