Jeanie Anastasi, Clinical Simulation Lead Educator at Notre Dame of Maryland University’s Center for Caring with Technology (CCT), needed a simple way to plug up a growing problem. The CCT, a clinical simulation lab used extensively by NDMU’s School of Nursing, has about fifty IV bags that all undergraduate nursing students utilize repeatedly to gain vital experience infusing and administering IV fluids. The problem? A lack of durable, reusable plugs for the bags.
“There are plugs that come with the IV fluid bags, but we use and reuse all our IV bags, so what we’d been doing up until now was taking old tubings and cutting them off to create makeshift plugs for the IV bags,” Anastasi explained. “The [IV bags] tend to grow a bit of mold, so we wanted something harder [for the plugs] so that fluid wouldn’t seep into the chamber.”
When the IV bags develop mold, they cannot be reused. While NDMU’s CCT receives donated expired bags from hospitals, it also must purchase many new simulation IV bags, which can cost anywhere from $10-$15 apiece. A way to extend the longevity of the IV bags, reduce plastic waste, and cut down on costs is to have stronger plugs that decrease the development of mold.
Anastasi is a member of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, a professional organization that promotes the use of simulation in healthcare education. She saw on the Society’s discussion board that the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences was able to use 3D printing to create IV bag plugs. They shared a model file of the 3D printing specifications with Anastasi, who then reached out to the Loyola Notre Dame Library’s (LNDL) Technology Services staff to see if LNDL could use the Dremel 3D printer in the Library’s Innovation Station to create similar plugs.
“They got back to me right away and said I think we can make this up, let’s try some prototypes,” said Anasasti. “It was absolutely fabulous just to find something so simple and to be so excited about using it and having it be generated right here at the Library.”
Youlanda Halterman, LNDL’s Digital Technology Web Supervisor, explained that she was able to use Dremel DigiLab 3D Slicer software to import the model file and generate the code that’s used to instruct the machines how to build the objects. It took about 45 minutes to print six plugs, so a bit over six hours of printing in total to complete the project.
Another key benefit of the 3D printed plugs, per Anastasi, is that they are closer to the real plugs students will be using when they enter the workforce compared to the makeshift plugs the CCT had previously provided.
“The goal of simulation is to get as close to a real hospital setting as you can. The more things you can use that are duplicated or exact replicas of things used in health care hospital settings, the better for the students.”
Anastasi shared that she thinks other healthcare programs may be able to manufacture educational items using LNDL’s 3D printing technology, and she spoke to her positive experience working with LNDL’s technology services staff: “The whole process was great, seamless, wonderful.”
Learn more about LNDL’s 3D printing services and all the technology available in the Innovation Station.
