Gimme A Hand: A Low-Cost IV Management Task Trainer
Inspiration
Our Experiential Learning Clinic (ELC) team at Linfield-Good Samaritan School of Nursing, Linfield University, continually looks for ways to innovate as we steward our fiscal and capital resources. Our low-tech, low-cost and fun “home-made” IV administration task trainer (aka “the hand”) is a SimVention that exemplifies a budget-friendly, innovative approach to instructional design that can be adopted and adapted in a variety of healthcare education settings.
The hand IV management task trainer was developed by an inter-professional staff and faculty team to address instructional design challenges related to scale, cost, and repeatability for teaching and learning IV management. Each member of our ELC team – simulation operations specialists, simulationist, theory and clinical faculty, and student workers – partnered to identify a simple, cost effective, and sustainable design solution.
We explored affordable materials close at hand, e.g. cotton balls, foam, and IV catheters. Low cost was a requirement as we needed to scale the design for a 120+ learner cohort each semester. Portability was also a key factor so learners could request hands for “check out” to continue practice outside of on-campus clinical with learning objectives of developing muscle memory and deepening critical thinking for safe IV management.
This page outlines the materials and recipe, and showcases an instructional video to help you create your own hands! We welcome your feedback.
Materials Needed
- Surgical Gloves
- Cotton Balls
- Foam 5”x2”
- Rubber Tubing 6”-8”
- Hot glue gun
- Zip Ties
- Secondary Tubing
- Extension Set
- Empty IV bag/Drainage bag
- Surgical Tape
- Angiocath
- Scissors
- Cup with water
- 3ml syringe
Steps
- Glue rubber tubing on to a foam piece extending off the foam by 2”
- Glue section of the tubing; nearest to the fingers; to prevent any air in
- Fill fingertips of gloves with cotton balls
- Place foam inside the glove to represent hand and vein
- Glue secondary tubing w/ drainage bag attached to rubber tubing
- Zip tie where the secondary tubing is glued to the rubber tubing
- Insert angiocath into rubber tubing
- Apply extension set and adapter
- Appropriately tape down extension set
- Use 3ml syringe and water to check for patency
Troubleshooting Tips