Today was another fantastic day in Bilbao! We started off the day early with a great breakfast from the hotel, and then headed over to the engineering school where we first met with a research group in the biomedical engineering laboratory to talk about the various devices that they were developing, in particular a mobile wheelchair. We got to see how they tracked how much pressure was being put on certain parts of the wheelchair, and got to see how it moved around with a lever, which was super cool! Then, our trip leader Saioa led us through an amazing design workshop that targeted various issues in the hospital, with my group being assigned “Safe and Efficient Patient Transfers”.
Patient transfers are a massive problem in hospitals because they are unsafe and strenuous to healthcare workers who face constant back pain due to needing to move patients in awkward positions. It is also sometimes unsafe for the patients because there are risks of being dropped or being very uncomfortable during the transfers. Thus, we took multiple steps in our workshop to come up with ways to fix this problem. First, we did a fun brain warm-up with a creativity challenge with drawing, which I won in our group!! Then, we went through different challenges and scenarios in our group related to our problem, where our group practiced bed-to-bed patient transfers and identified potential systemic problems with the way patients are transferred now. Once we identified these problems, we brainstormed and drew out an idea of a potential solution, which included a board with head support that had wheels on tracks across the beds to be able to glide patients across with minimal discomfort and less strain for the healthcare workers. We then got mini hospital beds, mini mannequins along with modeling clay and other crafting materials to make our idea into a real prototype! Our group had so much fun doing this workshop, and after we were done we all got to present our ideas and ask questions! We even had some friendly competition among the groups by peppering each other with questions about the specifics of everyone’s designs. Overall, I learned a lot about the engineering design process and the various problems facing hospitals today and it was very informative!
After the workshop we got lunch at the engineering school before taking a very rainy walk to the Fine Arts Museum! We got a tour from a guide at the museum, and it was interesting to see the various exhibits that were shown there! After the museum all 19 of us took a trip to the mall for some shopping, and then got krookies after (We can never go a day without a sweet treat). After a successful shopping trip, a group of us went and got authentic Spanish food for dinner, which was delicious! After dinner we went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit before bed. Overall, today was a great day and I can’t wait for tomorrow!
