Talk your way round--a speech interface to a virtual museum

Purpose : To explore the development of a speech interface to a virtual world and to consider its relevance for disabled users.

Method : The system was developed using mainly software that is available at minimal cost. How well the system functioned was assessed by measuring the number of times a group of users with a range of voices had to repeat commands in order for them to be successfully recognized. During an initial session, these users were asked to use the system with no instruction to see how easy this was.

Results : Most of the spoken commands had to be repeated less than twice on average for successful recognition. For a set of 'teleportation' commands this figure was higher (2.4), but it was clear why this was so and could easily be rectified. The system was easy to use without instruction. Comments on the system were generally positive.

Conclusions : While the system has some limitations, a virtual world with a reasonably reliable speech interface has been developed almost entirely from software which is available at minimal cost. Improvements and further testing are considered. Such a system would clearly improve access to virtual reality (VR) technologies for those without the skills or physical ability to use a standard keyboard and mouse. It is an example of both assistive technology (AT) and universal design.     

Talk your way round--a speech interface to a virtual museum

PURPOSE: To explore the development of a speech interface to a virtual world and to consider its relevance for disabled users. METHOD: The system was developed using mainly software that is available at minimal cost. How well the system functioned was assessed by measuring the number of times a group of users with a range of voices had to repeat commands in order for them to be successfully recognized. During an initial session, these users were asked to use the system with no instruction to see how easy this was. RESULTS: Most of the spoken commands had to be repeated less than twice on average for successful recognition. For a set of 'teleportation' commands this figure was higher (2.4), but it was clear why this was so and could easily be rectified. The system was easy to use without instruction. Comments on the system were generally positive. CONCLUSIONS: While the system has some limitations, a virtual world with a reasonably reliable speech interface has been developed almost entirely from software which is available at minimal cost. Improvements and further testing are considered. Such a system would clearly improve access to virtual reality (VR) technologies for those without the skills or physical ability to use a standard keyboard and mouse. It is an example of both assistive technology (AT) and universal design.     

Talk your way round--a speech interface to a virtual museum

Purpose : To explore the development of a speech interface to a virtual world and to consider its relevance for disabled users. Method : The system was developed using mainly software that is available at minimal cost. How well the system functioned was assessed by measuring the number of times a group of users with a range of voices had to repeat commands in order for them to be successfully recognized. During an initial session, these users were asked to use the system with no instruction to see how easy this was. Results : Most of the spoken commands had to be repeated less than twice on average for successful recognition. For a set of 'teleportation' commands this figure was higher (2.4), but it was clear why this was so and could easily be rectified. The system was easy to use without instruction. Comments on the system were generally positive. Conclusions : While the system has some limitations, a virtual world with a reasonably reliable speech interface has been developed almost entirely from software which is available at minimal cost. Improvements and further testing are considered. Such a system would clearly improve access to virtual reality (VR) technologies for those without the skills or physical ability to use a standard keyboard and mouse. It is an example of both assistive technology (AT) and universal design.     

Cultural empathy in physiotherapy students: a pre-test post-test study utilising virtual simulation

Objectives

To investigate how a virtual cultural simulation experience and guided reflection influenced physiotherapy students’ intrapersonal and interpersonal cultural empathy, and to explore students’ satisfaction with the learning experience.

An experiment in the development of empathy in student nurses

Student nurses were assessed for their specific interview behaviour with patients after experiencing an empathetic training and a psychological-mindedness experience. The results show that empathy was not increased or decreased. The reasons for the experimental findings are discussed.     

Cultivating evidence-based practice through mentorship

BackgroundNurses' use of evidence-based practice (EBP) improves patient outcomes through provision of optimal patient care.AimThe Evidence-Based Practice Mentorship Program (EBPMP) is a self-directed, year-long immersion program implemented for staff nurses to experience the EBP process with close mentor support. The aim of this program is to bolster a culture of EBP at a single large pediatric quaternary care hospital in the Northeast.ResultsA total of 81 nurses across 4 cohorts participated in this organization wide program from 2016 to 2019. To date the program has produced 46 internally and externally disseminated EBP projects. Of the graduates, 7-nurse mentees have become formal EBPMP mentor's, 3 have applied and been accepted into the organizational based Nursing Science Fellowship to carry out clinical inquiry projects to fill important literary gaps, and 6 have received promotions or career advancements. Most importantly, graduates have anecdotally reported that program participation inspired deeper critical reflection of patient care.SummaryUtilizing mentorship to facilitate EBP was a key educational strategy for the busy mentors and mentees, as many of the nurse participants were direct care providers. This self-directed program resulted in a high project completion rate leading to continued organizational support for the program, which is now in its fourth year.     

Considerations for the future development of virtual technology as a rehabilitation tool

Background  

Virtual environments (VE) are a powerful tool for various forms of rehabilitation. Coupling VE with high-speed networking [Tele-Immersion] that approaches speeds of 100 Gb/sec can greatly expand its influence in rehabilitation. Accordingly, these new networks will permit various peripherals attached to computers on this network to be connected and to act as fast as if connected to a local PC. This innovation may soon allow the development of previously unheard of networked rehabilitation systems. Rapid advances in this technology need to be coupled with an understanding of how human behavior is affected when immersed in the VE.     

Cultivating joy: Improving nurse resilience through use of a practice playbook

Purpose/aimsThe purpose of this study was to determine whether resiliency activities, compiled into a practice playbook designed for implementation by nurse leaders and self-initiation by clinical nurses, improves resilience in both the nurse leaders and direct care nurses who implement them.BackgroundEvidence indicates strengthening nurse resilience increases well-being, protects against burnout, improves retention and increases patient safety.MethodsA resilience playbook was assembled to include stress-reduction activities. Resilience was measured at baseline and after two phases during which participants engaged in leader-led and self-initiated activities. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) was used to measure resilience.ResultsA total of 118 nurses completed both phases; 17 leaders and 101 clinical nurses. A significant increase in mean CD-RISC scores was detected among those who participated in self-initiated activities (p = 0.01). Initiating or participating in leader-led activities did not positively impact resilience scores. Further, clinical nurses who participated in leader-led activities were not more likely to participate in self-initiated activities.ConclusionsThis study supports self-initiated resilience-strengthening activities as beneficial to nurses, but not leader-led initiatives. These results are especially important for nursing leaders as they strive to reduce burnout, improve nurse retention and achieve exceptional practice quality.     

Cultivating interpretive thinking through enacting narrative pedagogy

Teachers and educational researchers in nursing have persisted in their attempts to teach students critical thinking and to evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts. Yet, despite the plethora of studies investigating critical thinking, there is a paucity of research providing evidence that teachers' efforts improve students' thinking. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study is to explicate how students' thinking can be extended when teachers use Narrative Pedagogy. Specifically, the theme Cultivating Interpretive Thinking refers to how teachers' use of Narrative Pedagogy moves beyond the critical thinking movement's emphasis on analytical thinking (i.e., problem solving). Cultivating Interpretive Thinking offers an innovative approach for teaching and learning thinking that attends to students' embodied, reflective, and pluralistic thinking experiences. Teachers who cultivate interpretive thinking add complexity to students' thinking to better prepare them for challenging, complex, and unpredictable clinical environments.     

The development of empathy in students on a short, skills based counselling course: a pilot study

This paper reports on a pilot study to measure the development of empathy in students on a short skills-based counselling course. Thirty-eight students from a total population of 56 produced mean empathy scores prior to and following the counselling training. The results indicate that changes in levels of student empathy occurred in all but one of the students with a wide variation in the degree of change. Whilst the results obtained in this study in no way allow any firm conclusions to be drawn, they do provide tentative evidence that student empathy levels can increase as a consequence of undertaking a short skills-based counselling course and, further more, comprehensive research in this area is indicated. This apparent increase in students' empathy appears to be a positive development, yet it could also create difficulties for the nurse due to the possibility of increased emotional demands created by this empathy. Despite the arguments for attempting to develop empathy in students being robust, there may be some individuals who would argue that short skills-based counselling training does not enable empathic development in the students. Whilst the authors argue that there is a need to demystify counselling training, they in no way suggest that there is no need for lengthy, more intensive counselling training. There appears to be a case for having both forms of counselling training.     

Engendering student empathy for disabled clients with urinary incontinence through experiential learning

As part of a rehabilitation clinical course for senior baccalaureate nursing students, a disability-incontinence experiential learning activity is required. The assignment is intended to familiarize students with some of the challenges encountered by a client with mobility problems, including continence management issues using disposable undergarments. Wearing the undergarments dry and wet while being confined to a wheelchair provides insight and promotes empathy for patients with bladder control problems.     

The influence of clients' perceptions of the helping relationship in the development of an empathy scale

The paper includes a discussion about the origins of items on a measure of cognitive–behavioural empathy. This scale was originally produced by the author as a teaching tool for an empathy education programme (for RNs) and subsequently developed into a quantitative measure of empathy. The instrument is being used as part of a triangulated approach for data collection on research into the effectiveness of an educational programme about registered nurses' empathy.
Antecedents of the initial item pool for the scale stem from theoretical views about empathy, the professional experience of others, and the researcher's experience with clients. While this scale has undergone some investigation for reliability and validity, this work will only be summarized briefly. The major focus for the paper is clients' reports of interpersonal conditions which they perceive as being helpful, or unhelpful, in respect of building therapeutic nurse–client relationships.     

Three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy through virtual refocusing using a recursive light propagation network

Three-dimensional fluorescence microscopy has an intrinsic performance limit set by the number of photons that can be collected from the sample in a given time interval. Here, we extend our earlier work – a recursive light propagation network (RLP-Net) – which is a computational microscopy technique that overcomes such limitations through virtual refocusing that enables volume reconstruction from two adjacent 2-D wide-field fluorescence images. RLP-Net employs a recursive inference scheme in which the network progressively predicts the subsequent planes along the axial direction. This recursive inference scheme reflects that the law of physics for the light propagation remains spatially invariant and therefore a fixed function (i.e., a neural network) for a short distance light propagation can be recursively applied for a longer distance light propagation. In addition, we employ a self-supervised denoising method to enable accurate virtual light propagation over a long distance. We demonstrate the capability of our method through high-speed volumetric imaging of neuronal activity of a live zebrafish brain. The source code used in the paper is available at https://github.com/NICALab/rlpnet.     

Enhancing learning in an online doctoral course through a virtual community platform

Great teaching engages learners. Creating an online course that is engaging to learners requires substantial planning and creativity. In developing a new online course for doctoral students in nursing (DNP and PhD) and in other health science disciplines, we were interested in creating an application that would 1) support narrative pedagogy, 2) support highly engaging, student-centered learning, and 3) require learners to apply content within real-world experiences. In order to support such learning and achieve these goals, we created a virtual community platform. This paper reports on the development and implementation of a new type of virtual community platform to support teaching and learning in an online, doctoral-level course, specifically designed for nurses and other healthcare clinicians transitioning to a faculty role.     

急危重症虚拟实验室的设计与开发

虚拟现实技术已逐渐进入到医学教育领域,有着广阔的应用前景。本文根据急危重症实验教学的需要,利用现代计算机技术、多媒体技术和虚拟现实技术,针对急救技能的操作要点及难点,同时考虑到学生的学习兴趣,设计、研发了相关软件和项目,构建了急危重症虚拟实验室。