Are Touchscreens Robbing a Generation of Surgeons of Their Dexterity? (bbc.com) 68
schwit1 shared this article from the BBC:
A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients. Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical. "It is important and an increasingly urgent issue," says Prof Kneebone, who warns medical students might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew. "It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things - cutting things out, making things - that is no longer the case," says Prof Kneebone.
The professor, who teaches surgery to medical students, says young people need to have a more rounded education, including creative and artistic subjects, where they learn to use their hands. Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.... "A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills. Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument. Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says. "We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
Interestingly, much of the professor's research is on simulations, according to his web page at Imperial College London, where he leads "an unorthodox and creative research group" that uses professional actors with inanimate models to create realistic clinical encounters, as well as "low-cost, portable yet highly convincing environments such as the 'inflatable operating theatre'."
The professor, who teaches surgery to medical students, says young people need to have a more rounded education, including creative and artistic subjects, where they learn to use their hands. Prof Kneebone says he has seen a decline in the manual dexterity of students over the past decade - which he says is a problem for surgeons, who need craftsmanship as well as academic knowledge.... "A lot of things are reduced to swiping on a two-dimensional flat screen," he says, which he argues takes away the experience of handling materials and developing physical skills. Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument. Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says. "We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
Interestingly, much of the professor's research is on simulations, according to his web page at Imperial College London, where he leads "an unorthodox and creative research group" that uses professional actors with inanimate models to create realistic clinical encounters, as well as "low-cost, portable yet highly convincing environments such as the 'inflatable operating theatre'."
I can barely write my name (Score:2)
My hand writing has become a scrawl.
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What TFA is lacking: Any evidence whatsoever that dexterity is actually declining.
It is not news that some old geezer thinks the world is going to hell because kids-these-days are corrupted by some new-fangled thing. That has been happening since Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth in ancient Athens.
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Exactly.
Also, if 'stitching or sewing up patients' is an important skill for medical students, shouldn't they specifically be taught how to do so? I know I'd like the quality of my stitches not to be dependent on whether the surgeon liked his arts and crafts when he was a kid.
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It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school. Nerves have lost the needed flexibility. Perhaps it is like a foreign language: most people can learn another language perfectly only if they start at early age. Start in your twenties and you can never pronounce it like a native, even if your vocabulary and grammar are ok.
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It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school. Nerves have lost the needed flexibility. Perhaps it is like a foreign language: most people can learn another language perfectly only if they start at early age. Start in your twenties and you can never pronounce it like a native, even if your vocabulary and grammar are ok.
Don't have mod points today....
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It could be that it is too late to learn that at medical school.
This is pure conjecture. There is no evidence that it is true. I have learned physical skills later in life, and so have many other people.
This is in addition to no evidence that the "loss of dexterity" even exists in the first place. It seems highly improbable. A generation ago students used computers with a mouse and keyboard. Today they still do that, but also use touchpads. Why would using your finger instead of a mouse result in less dexterity? It seems just as plausible that using the finger wo
Occam's Razor (Score:1)
Apply Occam's razor.
I did, and it told me that people often present false dichotomies on the Internet.
While the idea of a language acquisition window is complex and, like many ideas, not fully understood, it is mostly regarded as false. [medium.com] The article presents some interesting conjecture, but I agree that it provides very little evidence to support an actual "loss of dexterity". The pendulum doesn't always realize it swings. [slashdot.org]
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For sure, but I suspect you can tell a bit about a surgeon's skill by looking at his stitches. If he takes the time to do it well and attends to the details, he probably extends at least that much attention to the more serious work. I just had foot surgery a couple of months ago, and was taken care of by one of the best podiatric surgeons in the state. His stitches were immaculate, and left very little scarring.
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if 'stitching or sewing up patients' is an important skill for medical students, shouldn't they specifically be taught how to do so?
They are. They start with dummies, then cadavers, then real patients. When my daughter gashed her foot, I assumed the woman in the ER stitching her wound was a nurse, but she was a medical student. The doctor was just watching.
Surgical stitching isn't like sewing cloth. The needle is curved, and it is manipulated with pliers rather than fingers. It looks hard, but if you try it, it is actually easier than the way a seamstress would stitch. You can see better without your fingers in the way, and the pl
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Re: meh (Score:1)
Knicking your bladder isnâ(TM)t about knowledge, itâ(TM)s about dexterity.
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Yes, I've seen him on TV with Dr. Slim Goodbody MD.
Digiboi panders lax (Score:1)
The real world is analog, as are all desirable interactions. Think of weaving or loving or trekking. Digiboi gamr-sluts pander the trivial ... promote the lax ... encourage the slovenly.
Why touchscreens, /.? (Score:2)
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"A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients."
I don't see anything about touchscreens there. When Windows made computing "easy" for the masses in the 90s, it meant you could just click around with a mouse, and the keyboard was just a prop to make the thing look like a real computer. No touchscreens there, but the same issue. Or you could go back a few more decades and complain that young people are just staring at TV screens all day and night.
I'm not a big fan of touchscreens, and I believe proper use of keyboards is much better for dexterity than s
Really? (Score:2)
This really surprised me. I was under the impression, using a smartphone was a feat of manual dexterity in itself. They're not particularly easy to type on, for instance.
Would be nice if we had more research into why smartphone usage inhibits finer motor control for other activities. In my perspective, this doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I think hand writing with a pen or pencil requires much more physical dexterity than smearing your fingers onto a flat surface. Schooling used to require daily hand written exercise for years, even just taking notes for a few minutes each day - I do think it matters.
Beyond that, doing things that require using ones hands to manipulate objects develops skills in so so doing. My coworkers are often surprised I can reach behind a machine and screw in or unscrew items by feel without looking at them.
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True. However, it is ironical that doctors who are supposed to have dexterous hands have barely legible hand writing!
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I think hand writing with a pen or pencil requires much more physical dexterity than smearing your fingers onto a flat surface. Schooling used to require daily hand written exercise for years, even just taking notes for a few minutes each day - I do think it matters.
It's ironic actually that the people who spent the most time at school (doctors and surgeons) are also the ones with famously horrible handwriting :-)
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Using a smartphone is a amazing feat of dexterity, because the incremental movements needed to type pixel next to pixel is small.
But you need to examine how the movement goes: You use pinky to middle finger holding the object, or all 4 main fingers to hold it. You then touch type via thumb or pointer. If you use both hands, you don't use the finer muscles in the hand to do incremental adjustments to angle to have more reach and finer movements. So touch typing on a smart phone means you don't get to
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Since I have had to type, over the decades my handwriting had become horrible. Compare it from when I was a child, and it's completely different.
The same with my signature. Touch screen, Pffft! Hasn't been around that long.
Uh, have you seen the handwriting skills of anyone armed with a PhD? The Dr. Chicken Scratch joke has been around for a lot longer than even keyboards. And no matter how much or little I put pencil to paper, it doesn't change my guitar playing. I think you may be reaching a bit here. One type of activity requiring manual dexterity is not synonymous with all others.
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Hello, meet Dr. Kneebone's assistant, Dr. Hipbone. Dr. Hipbone's connected to Dr. Thighbone by marriage to Dr. Shinbone.
Oh dear, my hipbone is connected to the thighbone by the acetabulofemoral joint: I must be doing it all wrong.
That makes no sense (Score:1)
Sorry, but this theory that touchscreens are depriving us of manual dexterity is just ridiculous. Little kids cut and draw and paint and craft like nobody's business. That's all practicing manual dexterity. Lots of kids continue doing to that on to adulthood. Many (mostly girls) continue on with jewerly making through teen years. Many (mostly boys) are playing video games with console. Many work with electronics. Pool and darts are still popular into adulthood. Working on cars. Woodworking. Sewing. And pre
Re:That makes no sense (Score:5, Informative)
Many (mostly boys) are playing video games with console.
Those are totally different skills
I don't know whether this guy is a just some quack
No, he knows what he's talking about. How can you doubt a guy called 'Kneebone' ?
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Certainly. Please see the practice of Drs. Thighbone and Shinbone.
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No, but sorry. For the vast majority of kids there are still countless activities every day helping them improve their manual dexterity.
Maybe years ago, but I'm not so sure about now. I have a few friends that work at different school districts and they all say that students are losing the ability to write for periods of time. Everything is now typing and touch screens. Schools (around here anyway) have cut down on written aspects of their courses and don't do much in the way of pushing writing. Kids have laptops in class and submit homework online, and as a result they don't have as much manual dexterity as the older generation does.
I
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My daughter has a friend who brought an MCAT study guide to (mandatory) school sleepaway camp. She spends hours on scholastics and reading, but does little else. She does help in her parents restaurant, so there is probably manual dexterity involved for her.
However, there are plenty of kids whose parents are similarly driving them and working professional careers where there is little
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Like so many boys in the modern world, the distance between twitch and stitch remains undiscovered country.
What Kneebone is probably neglecting most seriously is the ramp
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No. (Score:1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Yay! (Score:2)
I remember when ... (Score:2)
People trying to eke the good out of video games pointed out that they radically improve hand-eye coordination, and in later generations of gaming systems and choices, spacial positioning and manipulation, scene analysis and pattern detection, and the ability to more easily comprehend and learn new systems.
Even more recently, there's been folks claiming that they improve communication and leadership skills.
I'm not going to go over the merits of those claims, but note that you can find anecdotal data to back
What exactly were they doing before touch screens? (Score:2)
This probably has more to do with more people becoming surgeons. Similar to how grade averages dropped not because people were getting dumber but because we stopped shipping little jimmy off to the factory for a 3.8 GPA.
One thing to add (Score:1)
What's that old quote, "Never let perfect be the enemy of good".
Then top favoring students with top grades... (Score:2)
...that have no physical dexterity.
Medical school is competitive. Students learn early to work to the test.
They aren't going to practice dexterity unless you test for it.
Throw this bit of information into the bin (Score:2)