Project Overview

PROBLEM OVERVIEW

The Washer Suit design revolves around solving the general issues of hygiene, privacy, and comfort for both the nurse/caretakers and the patient whom the suit is primarily for.

Patients who are incapable or struggle to maneuver themselves out of bed for the purpose of going to the shower or bath are often met with physical pain and constant irritation for such a burdensome task of being washed and held up by a nurse/caretaker during the process washing oneself. As far as current procedures go, patients are often cleaned with wipes while in bed or are assisted to a shower seat. Due to this reason, most patients are reluctant towards taking showers or baths despite the fact that patients must be maintaining their hygiene for the purpose of eliminating a risk towards further infection or illness.   

With the Washer Suit, however, there is no need to get out of bed. One simply needs to slip on the waterproof suit, attach the jet tubes to the corresponding locations on the suit, and press a button to start the water circulating bath suit that washes the patient’s body in hard to reach places while maintaining comfort and privacy. The only job for the nurse/caretaker is to put the suit on the patient, pour in soap in the designated area if requested, regulate temperature and pressure of the water prior to wash, and come back to take off the suit.  

DESIGN CONSTRAINTS

The constraints to this design include allergies, water pressure, how to enter the suit, the person’s size, and preventing water spillage. Latex is a cheap form of rubber normally used for gloves. Allergies to latex are very common in many people and therefore the materials to make the suit as well as using a hypoallergenic soap are important factors. There are constraints with the water as well, including figuring out ways to circulate it through the entire suit, how to prevent leakage, and also how high the water pressure should be to allow the person to be fully cleansed. Additionally, a major constraint includes how to enter the suit. Since this is a suit designed for people who have a hard time bathing themselves, the suit needs to be easy to get in and out of. The last constraint has to do with the size of the suit. There cannot be one large suit, because individuals vary in size whether it is by the width of the body or the height. The patient could be a 6 foot tall adult or a child. 

PRE-EXISTING SOLUTIONS

One alternative solution to this design already in existence is having patients wash in a sit down shower. This prevents the patient from being able to be cleaned from their bed, but is a better option than having the patient stand in the shower. The patient is put into a wheelchair and wheeled to a bathroom where they may sit on a bench in the shower. This design is very common in the bathrooms of hospitals and retirement homes.

      

Another solution is having a nurse or caretaker give a sponge bath to a patient from their bed. This involves the use of water, sponges, and a certain type of soap that does not need to be rinsed off or dried. This idea requires extra labor, and all areas of the patient may not be cleaned. The sponge bath solution is mainly used as a last resort to clean a patient, especially if they cannot move.

DESIGN GOAL

The goal of the design is to create a comfortable washer body suit that can effectively clean paraplegic and elderly patients who are immobile and are unable to wash themselves without assistance. Paraplegic patients have spinal damage that prevents them from using their lower body, and, in worse cases, can become quadriplegic, where they lose control of their entire body. Elderly patients also become physically weak with age and lose control of their extremities. This makes both patients need help in washing themselves, since they are not able to get to the bathroom or use any equipment.

Previous circumstances have had the immobile patients needing the assistance of a nurse to manually wash them in a shower. This demands the nurse to take time to hand wash the patients, which becomes laborious and time consuming. It can also bring physical stress to the patients and nurses who need to work together to position the patients to be sufficiently cleaned. Additionally, the patient's constant need for someone for intimate routines, such as bathing, can be damaging to the patient’s morale because they become completely dependent. Because of this reason, patients naturally want to do the bathing procedures alone. With the Washer Suit, the patient can bathe without needing the nurse to hold their body and be in incredibly close proximity. The suit is meant to be an ergonomic way to clean the body so as to reduce the mental, physical, and financial stress to the patients and hospital’s staff.

Comfort is an important part of the design because if a problem arises it is virtually impossible for the immobilized patient to reposition themselves to get out of the suit. Using a comfortable, flexible material that can wrap around the body will allow for the patient to be easily placed into the suit from the convenience of the patient’s bedroom. The suit will come with a main motor box that contains water pumps and mechanics that is connected with the hospital’s water supply. The motor box controls and maintains the supply and sends it through the water pumps that will be attached to the suit. Not moving the patient from the bed will be ideal for the patient because it will shorten their distance and provide good stability for the paralyzed patient.  There are soft jets implemented in the suit to help the water circulation and massage the soap into the body. The whole suit then drains the water out of the drainage pipes below the feet. The motor box and the suit will also contain controls for water pressure and jet speed to prevent any discomfort for the patient. Ultimately, the suit should be able to quickly clean and relax the patient with minimal effort for the nurse or patient.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

The most important deliverable would be the blue print of the design of which would be formed with the research gathered by each member. This blue print will include the system components of pre-existing machines such as the jets from the hot tub, the circulation system and temperature regulation that comes with a washing machine, the material for the suit as suggested from either previous astronaut suit material or water tubing material, and the sources of power and water that will be especially necessary for the function of this design.

It is highly unlikely that the group will be able to build a real-life washer suit due to the high expenses and the unavailable sources for water and power as necessary for the suit. However, the physical deliverable that will be prepared for week ten’s presentation will be a Pro/ENGINEER model of the suit’s components and a small scale prototype from the 3-D printing machine, as well as detailed blueprints of the design. 

PROJECT SCHEDULE

          Figure 1 below illustrates the projected weekly schedule for the entire ten-week term.

Figure 1: Schedule for group progress and management during term

PROJECTED BUDGET

For the purpose of this project, the group will be constructing a 3D prototype of the design through the use of Drexel University’s rapid prototype machine. Using this machine is free of charge for students and is located in the Drexel Machine Shop [1]. The prototype the group will print may require more than an hour to make, which is why a work order form will be placed earlier in advance. The work order form must be approved before the construction of the prototype begins [2]. For the remaining parts of the project, software such as Pro/ENGINEER and various other components utilized will be of no cost to the group.  With this knowledge, it can be assumed that the project will be at no cost to the group or the University. If there is a cost at a later time in the assignment, it will be added to the budget as necessary.