Learning how to perform pediatric chest physiotherapy: analyzing the learning curve to design a simulatoris
Résumé
The fragile state of infants requiring chest physiotherapy makes it most difficult to understand and learn the appropriate techniques. The use of a simulator might be helpful for healthcare professionals. Designing an adequate simulator requires an analysis of clinical practices. Together with video recordings, we used a system recording the gestures and movements of expert therapists performing chest physiotherapy on infants. The goal was to establish a set of reference movements and to identify the concept underlying each action. The results showed that the expert physical therapists used a hypothesis-deduction method to structure their action based on specific physical therapy indicators. Quality of care could be improved by teaching this rationale. This observation led to the development of a model adapted to the creation of a mechanotronic environment for human learning.