Prosthetists, Orthotists and their support workers deliver services that provide prostheses (artificial limbs) and orthoses (braces and splints) to people with mobility disability resulting from limb loss or impairment. There are over 1,000 registered Prosthetists and Orthotists registered in the UK. Their support workforce have skills developed through on-the-job training and experience. However, most support workers have never accessed formal training and there are very limited continuing professional development opportunities for them. It is important to develop new learning resources for support workers to achieve growth in their capacity to provide patient services.
This project will deliver a prototype game that will enable users to interact with simulated patient case studies to learn about prosthetics and orthotics. They will be able to listen to and watch the case studies and investigate the situations by asking questions by speech. At critical moments during a simulation, users will be asked to make decisions about what they should do next in terms of treatment actions. Depending on their decisions, different virtual realities will be explored in the game. The digital concept is scalable to include multiple patient simulations reflecting the wide range of conditions and limb impairments experienced by people seeking treatment from prosthetic and orthotic services. The gaming application the project will develop will be made available to download to mobile devices by the support workers membership and affiliates of the BAPO (British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists). It will include bespoke content developed by experts in the field based on clinical and technical treatment methods.