A new video series provides valuable guidance for both students and patients who have undergone hand surgery.
Educational video series for patients and students
More and more hand surgery procedures are being performed on an outpatient basis, which is shifting the focus to follow-up care. In rural areas in particular, there relatively few hand therapists who can provide adequate follow-up care. The consequences for patients are long journeys to therapy and long waiting times.
As part of a multi-professional team, Kathrin Betting, a student in the physiotherapy programme, has developed a video-based digital tool to support outpatient hand therapy in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Holger Bannasch, director of the Clinic for Plastic, Hand, and Aesthetic Surgery at the Schwarzwald-Baar Clinic in Villingen-Schwenningen, and Tobias Lieb, owner of two occupational therapy practices in Tuttlingen and Spaichingen. Betting developed the “Black Forest Hand Guide” video series on five common hand surgery procedures for teaching and patient care. The videos supplement existing aftercare regimens and serve as instructions for patients to use for independent training. Short sequences clearly show which exercises should be performed in the respective postoperative phases. They also demonstrate how to correctly put on and take off splints and what aspects need to be considered when doing so.
These instructional videos are available to physiotherapy students at Furtwangen University both in teaching and in practical phases, offering a visual supplement to help them familiarise themselves with follow-up treatment plans.
The Black Forest Hand Guide will be presented in October at the joint congress of the German Society for Hand Surgery and the German Working Group for Hand Therapy in Würzburg.