Ball Memorial Hospital has hired a campus graphic design firm to create an informative video and interactive game-like system to familiarize nurses with the new layout of the South Tower.
Dylnn Melo, who works with Information Systems at the hospital, said the architecture firm the hospital is working with chose the Institute of Digital Intermedia Art and Animation as the graphic artists for the project.
"I know if you can see something visually it's easier to comprehend. Even though the video is only eight minutes long, it teaches nurses conceptual care and space design," she said.
From the carpet design to the green-grey marble countertop at the nurse's station, all the graphics were created in-house.
"We hand-crafted all the models because we wanted to make it look as close to the real hospital as possible," said Trever Danehy, virtual worlds modeler and animator at IDIAA.
The South Tower is four stories high, with five wings: Intensive Care, Cardiac Intensive Care, Progressive Care, Cardiac Pulmonary Care and Diabetes Care.
Melo explained the area under construction was built in the 1970s and used to be the intensive care and coronary care unit.
"Equipment in this area was up-to-date, but the building layout was not. Much of the nurse's time was spent hunting and gathering medical supplies," Melo said.
The new layout addresses this problem by decentralizing the space. Instead of in a centralized nursing station, each nurse will observe two patients from his or her station at the nurse's cove situated between two single patient rooms.
The rooms have been designed for family friendliness with a fold out futon and privacy curtain. A dry-erase board spans the wall behind the sink, allowing for quick communication from the nursing staff. The medical cabinet offers medical supplies and linens at hand, and can be opened from the hallway to respect the patient's privacy, said Neil Zehr, virtual worlds modeler and animator.
Nurses using the program may use the arrow tools on the keyboard to direct the character through the wing and holding the shift key changes the view from aerial to ground level. A map tool can be displayed on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen for navigation. Also, any moused-over object that turns blue is interactive, such as the chair at the nurse's cove, medicine cabinet or mobile computer in the patient room.
To accompany the video, the design team also created an interactive training system. Nurses can navigate through the wing from the central nursing station, down the hallway to the coves and inside the patient room, which is the most interactive, intensely simulated room.
"This is the first time a 3-D game has been produced at Ball State," said John Filwalk, director of IDIAA.
Both the informative video and interactive system were presented to a committee at the hospital Monday. Melo expects the interactive system will be incorporated into the nurses' training course next week.
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