OHCC is the Director of Rehabilitation Services at Beth Abraham Center

Jacqueline Turenne

Rehabilitation in a skilled nursing facility can encompass many modalities, activities, and come in all shapes and sizes in order to drive the highest outcomes for patients and residents.

Patients and residents alike enter rehabilitation in a skilled nursing center looking to maximize their functional potential and return back to their homes as vibrant members of their community. Today, the population we serve is of a younger generation and more familiar with video games and virtual reality activities than the generation before. Because of this, in addition to traditional physical and occupational therapy, many skilled nursing facilities offer the use of modern simulation technology. The simulation technology is designed to speed up the recovery of patients and drive great outcomes, which is to get better and return home.

Jintronix is one of today’s proven exciting simulation technology. It is a modality used in various rehabilitation centers at skilled nursing facilities. At Beth Abraham Center in the New York City borough of the Bronx, this technology acts as a bridge to connect to the patients and residents, turning rehabilitation therapy into something fun rather than work. Simulation technology helps to foster patient participation, increase motivation, and assess functional outcomes to achieve these goals.

It is a type of simulation therapy that immerses the residents and patients into different activities as an avatar, where one of its disciplines shows downhill skiing and how to ski correctly showing speed and balance with the slalom gates or driving a car on an Indy 500 racetrack to demonstrate a patient’s accuracy. These are just a few of the activities that can work on strengthening limbs and core, increase and improve balance (sitting and/or standing) as well as eye/hand coordination, improving one’s attention span and ability to follow directions. Jintronix can be used as part of an individual treatment or in a group setting. When used in a group setting, it can foster some healthy competition amongst the patients, along with socialization and laughter, the ultimate medicine in a nursing home setting.

For our residents with cognitive impairments, it can be most helpful in engaging them in therapy and helping them to connect and participate in the different activities and games. Here, they can achieve goals by following visual cues and engage various colorful images, especially if they are unable to or have difficulty with following verbal cues. We, as therapists, see them engage in a way that may not or would not have been witnessed through traditional therapy modalities.

“When used in a group setting, it can foster some healthy competition amongst the patients, along with socialization and laughter, the ultimate medicine in a nursing home setting”

With Jintronix being used during therapy sessions, its clinical value and set-up are quite impressive. Each patient has their own profile in the system that allows the therapists to set up, assign, and track the various activities that the patient has participated in along with the progress made upon completion of each of the activities. This gives the therapist objective data when assessing progress and achievement of various goals as part of the patient’s plan of care. Use of this modality can and has not only increased a patient’s motivation to participate in therapy, but also has contributed to their continued participation as they see themselves getting better and reaching their goals. They look forward to coming to therapy each day with the hopes of getting to use the Jintronix simulation technology and beat their score from the previous sessions. It has also contributed to speeding up one’s recovery and, in some instances, allowing them to reach higher goals and even higher functional abilities comparing to their prior levels of function.

While the goals for our patients and residents revolve around functional mobility and activities of daily living, Jintronix is a treasured simulation asset in our tool box of modalities that helps make therapy enjoyable, goals attainable, and enhance the patient experience. This particular technology, as well as other forms of simulation or virtual reality sensory systems, is and will be, part of rehab treatment programs for a long time to come.