By: Arlene Spilker, DNP, RN, FNP-C, CNE
One never knows where an opportunity will present itself. In fact, many people say that luck is the combination of chance and preparation. Working at SJSU, and being a part of the academic community proved this for me.
Prior to working in academia, I had a long career as a registered nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). One of the essential skills for a NICU nurse is the ability to properly position premature infants for optimal growth and development. Teaching nurses this skill has been an ongoing project of mine since the mid-1990s; this interest naturally evolved into the subject of my doctoral project and continues to this day. In short, preterm infants do not attain the typical curled up, flexed fetal position because of their decreased amount of time spent in utero. It is then vital that NICU nurses provide proper boundaries and support, ensuring that the babies are helped to achieve a midline and flexed position that mimics the intrauterine environment.
Research has shown that poor positioning causes musculoskeletal deformities, and negatively impacts growth and sleep which are critical to premature infant health and development. There are many commercially made developmental positioning supplies (boundaries and support items) currently on the market to assist hospitals and guardians in taking care of their in-need babies. However, there is no infant mannequin that fits the learning needs of the nurses caring for these tiny patients; they need something with articulated limbs and the flexibility of a premature infant. The kinesthetic skills needed for this training cannot be accomplished using dolls or stuffed animals, and I had, for years, wanted to develop a realistic articulated positioning mannequin that NICU nurses can use to practice and perfect their developmental positioning skills. My opportunity arose about two years ago: I attended an event organized by the deans of the various colleges at SJSU. The goal of the event was to provide an opportunity for networking in the hopes that interdisciplinary collaboration would occur. At that event, I met a biomedical engineering (BME) faculty member who introduced me to a colleague. Shortly after, these two connections began partnering undergraduate students with me on this project as part of their final coursework.
Over the last few semesters I have worked with about eight different BME students and we have made significant progress on the project: a realistic, fully articulated, fully positionable mannequin that NICU nurses can use for hands-on practice of developmental positioning skills. In order for the BME students to understand the rationale for the project, providing them with the life-saving context of the work, I had them review my doctoral work as well as many photo references and anatomical guidelines for the proper proportions and flexibility. Over time, what started as a collection of plastic parts obtained from a hardware store has evolved into a 3D printed model that looks more like a premature infant. It weighs less than two (2) pounds and is thirteen (13) inches long and is fully articulated. We are continuing to refine the model, and it will soon be ready for prototype testing with experts. I have also been in contact with the Division of Research and Innovation at SJSU and will be pursuing potential commercial possibilities for this invention/innovation.
It has been exciting to see the vision in my head become a reality because of the collaboration, expertise, and equipment available at SJSU. If anyone has an innovation or invention that they have always wanted to pursue, I highly encourage them to use the talent and resources that are available in our own backyard to make it a reality.