Faculty of Nursing Thammasat University invented innovation to help with vaccination procedures practicing in children.

Tuesday 22 November 2022

     Prof. Dr. Preekamol Ratchanakul, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, Thammasat University, one of the leaders of the ‘Vaccine training kit with sensor system’ for practicing vaccination procedures in children invention team. The innovation is a baby doll mannequin that is connected to a sound box and a sensor system to display an audible alarm when the vaccination person inserts a metal needle into the position of the sensor embedded in the mannequin legs with the actual vaccination site in infants under 6 months of age.

     Asst. Prof. Dr. Preekamol said that for vaccinating children under 6 months of age, we will not inject them in the arms and buttocks, but in the groins. Therefore, this mannequin can be used to teach vaccination procedures in all children. This mannequin legs is different from the general mannequin that usually has a clearly marked injection point to make it clear that only this area must be injected. In fact, the nurse will not be able to clearly observe that position. Therefore, it requires specific knowledge and skills. Therefore, the ‘Vaccine training kit with sensor system’ is designed to be different, having no indication of the injection point like other mannequin, so that the practitioners can learn the correct vaccination as precisely and realisticly as possible to the procedure in the field.

     The working mechanism of the mannequin is that the nurse can stick a needle into any side of the groins. If the needle is inserted deep enough and is in the correct position, an alarm will sound as detected by the sensor system installed on both legs. But if the needle does not inserted deep enough or does not reach the muscle layer, there will be no alarm. Thus allowing the practitioner to learn and estimate how deep the needle should be inserted.

     Asst. Prof. Dr. Preekamol said that the innovation of the ‘Vaccine training kit with sensor system’ started from social service work, which is a collaboration between the Faculty of Nursing and the National Vaccine Institute to develop personnel in the country's immunization work, causing both institutions to develop courses together and that the obstacles had been observed, such as the mannequin used are quite expensive and still project limitations. Therefore, it is considered that there should be instrument that can help the practitioners to obtain the most realistic experience.

     “We think that we should facilitate the knowledge we have and the technologies from the network to develop the vaccination kit together, so that personnel who come to practice can take advantage without having to invest much. At the same time, the aforementioned innovation can be used to teach nursing students as well.

     The ‘Vaccine training kit with sensor system’ is an innovation created by a collaboration between professors from the Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Thammasat University in designing and casting the baby doll mannequin to be as realistic as possible. It is expected that this innovation will be extended by increasing the functionality of the sensor system to be more detailed and make the mannequin more appealing which may ask for cooperation with the Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University in terms of sensor system development in the future, ”Asst. Prof. Dr. Preekamol said.