About Us
Nov. 14, 2024
Author: Lisa Lopez Snyder
With the support of a one-year proof-of-concept grant from the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC), Sarah Anderson, ‘23, PhD, assistant professor of Research at The Ohio State University School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and her team are updating two existing home health training technologies to transform safety for providers and clients.
The grant aims to update an 8-year-old computer video game training, a virtual design that currently allows participants to explore a home inside and out to help them identify potential hazards to the client. The grant’s goal: to enhance the design in order to test workers’ safety knowledge, in order for them to detect and manage hazards in client homes more effectively.
“This novel training will test providers’ knowledge and skills and what their competency level is,” says Dr. Anderson, who is also the project’s principal investigator.
The grant has four phases, she adds:
- An exploratory phase;
- A design and development phase;
- A home health provider product evaluation phase; and
- A randomized trial phase to assess trained and untrained users’ knowledge and skills in spotting safety issues.
Dr. Anderson says the HRS’ simulated home health environment room in Atwell Hall will soon aid in the third phase of testing the product. “That will allow us to analyze the video to see if people will be able to identify the hazards more readily compared with other participants without the training.”
plans to incorporate the Home HealthCare Conversations app into the video game to enhance the home health training.
The BWC grant project is all about safety and support, which not a lot of workers have, Dr. Anderson says.
“When workers are protected, clients are, too—and that impacts outcome.”