Student group’s challenge

“I supervised a group of students that wanted to work on hand hygiene and immediately wanted to make an app. […] It is known that hand hygiene is not well practiced in hospitals. I have seen students working on this healthcare problem in the innovation project for a few years now and students immediately say. ‘we are going to make an app’, because then they know how to do it. But the question is whether that is the problem. […] How do these students react? These students were actually very good. I have also had groups that were a bit disappointed who thought they had already done a lot and were actually not that far. But these students responded like, ‘oh yeah, we did not see it that way, that is actually a valid point, let’s do it and it can still be an app’. […] And then the students indeed found out that there were already a lot of apps and tools for this problem. […] But then, the students always come to a point where they (students) are hugely disappointed, because they (students) found out that everything had already been done. […] So, they (students) did not do the app anymore. The students eventually made a game” [T13 hand hygiene].

Teaching activities

“I then told the students that it is definitely a problem, if it was already solved, it would not still be everywhere known as a problem. But also inform the students that a lot has already been done, so I encourage them to first find out and ask around what has already been done, then see if you can find the gap, bring the pieces together so you can come up with a solution that has not been done yet and adds to solving the puzzle. Then I usually ask the students with whom they (students) think they can talk to, and then I try to add on that or let the students think of who else they (students) could talk to. […] I tell the students that their solution could always be an app, but first make sure you thoroughly explore and discover the problem. And the students actually thought that was a good idea. […] However, I see that a lot too that students are disillusioned because they (students) discover that everything has been done. Then, I tell the students that their problem is a rightful problem. It is still a problem, you also found that out. So many people in the hospital still do not follow hand hygiene, so all those existing solutions are not the solution to this problem” [T13 hand hygiene].