Learning support system reproducing finger movements in practicing nursing techniques.

Heretofore, "skill proficiency" in nursing techniques has only been developed through experience. To pass that technical proficiency down to later generations, this study is intended to build a learning support system using virtual reality by reproducing finger movements used in practicing nursing techniques. For practicing blood drawing techniques, we earlier developed a prototype system that uses a finger motion capture system to acquire finger position data when a syringe is grasped. It uses the acquired data to reproduce the process of the techniques three-dimensionally. This paper outlines the prototype system and reports its effectiveness for learning after examining results of a demonstration experiment for nursing students.