A group of local men have produced innovative devices to support midwifery education in the Pacific Islands.
The men, from the North Sydney Men’s Shed in Wollstonecraft, created the devices to be used as part of a Burnet Institute project supporting Pacific countries to provide quality midwifery education through clinical simulation.
They will be used in midwifery schools in six Pacific Island nations: Kiribati, Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
Local man Bill Howard and Burnet Institute midwifery specialist Rachel Smith were the brains behind the design. The Men’s Shed team then made them a reality – constructing 20 of the devices, each made up of two wooden disks punctuated by holes of various sizes. They allow student midwives to practise estimating the rate of cervix dilation during labour, by simulating the various stages.
Bill had created a simpler, single-panel version for use at UTS (his wife is Deborah Fox, Associate Professor in Midwifery) and Rachel had the idea to add a second disk so that students cannot see what they are feeling – and more accurately simulate real life.
“The project we’re doing with the seven midwifery schools across the Pacific Island countries is around developing the educators’ ability to use simulation in their midwifery education practice,” Rachel explains.
Bill Howard with one of the devices he helped design.
A lot of simulation equipment used in higher income countries is high tech – like dummies that can cough and sweat, with skin that feels real. But in settings without technicians to maintain the equipment (and sometimes with no electricity), more durable, practical solutions are needed.
The Men’s Shed group made the devices out of marine plywood, to withstand the humid conditions they will be used in. It took them a while to make the jigs and get the pieces working right, but they’re very proud of the finished products and the important work they will help to support. And now they have the prototypes, they say the work will be a lot quicker next time.
According to Bill, when he put the idea of creating the devices to the shed at the last general meeting, there was a unanimous, enthusiastic yes.
“Everybody’s been working flat out,” Bill says. “We’ve had some great ideas, and there are a lot of skills and knowledge in this area, so they’ve come up nice in the end with a lot of contributed skills.”
Two of the devices are already in Samoa. The group are putting the finishing touches on the remaining 18, before they are on their way to their destinations too.
The North Sydney Men’s Shed is a fully equipped workshop where both skilled and unskilled men can share time together and enjoy the great sense of accomplishment associated with working with timber. Open Tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm. Find out more.