Student nurses make impact at UWTSD’s Cerebra Innovation Centre

UWTSD’s Cerebra Innovation Centre has hosted two student nurses on an internship placement enabling them to experience the transformational work carried out to help children with neurodevelopmental conditions discover the world around them. 

BSc Nursing degree students Elisabeth Cheslett (Adult nursing) and Ellesse Mathias (learning disability nursing), spent a week with the Innovation Centre team, learning about bespoke design interventions for neurodiverse children. 

Cerebra Innovation Centre is a collaborative venture between the charity Cerebra and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Aligned to Cerebra’s national research strategy, CIC’s discovery research encompasses user-experience evaluation and user-centred development of assistive devices and products to help children with neurodevelopmental conditions.

Both students had previously worked with young people with cerebral palsy so had an invested interest in the work that CIC does. They were keen to learn about adaptions and innovative solutions to take forward into their careers. 

CIC product design manager Dr Ross Head said: “The best way to learn is to get stuck in! Elisabeth and Ellesse were hard working and engaging, they were happy to learn about past projects, how we solved problems and found solutions. Clearly very practical people, they picked up the process very quickly and then set about a short research and design project themselves. Whilst learning the ropes and demonstrating fantastic creative flair, the pair designed and prototyped a set of wheelchair-mounted musical instruments. ”

The CIC team set Elizabeth and Ellesse a product design challenge for the week. The brief was to design a musical system that would allow children living with a brain condition to access musical instruments. The pair chose to focus their efforts on children using wheelchairs and invented some clever “sound boxes” that could be installed on a flexible arm. Navigating the product design process, they sketched ideas, made simple “sketch models” to test concepts and then made working models to test. The innovative nurses used chimes, drums, xylophones and even some electronics to light up a screen when sounds were made!

 Student nurse, Ellesse Mathias said “ Throughout my week placement with the team really valued our input to their design process. I was able to use my 10 years’ experience to support the design team to create a piece of musical equipment to benefit teenagers or wheelchair users to engage in all aspects of music therapy. The team really engaged with our comments on the issues we have faced throughout the years , to make our initial vision a prototype product. I found it beneficial to utilise our nursing hats to create a wonderful piece of equipment to provide a unique experience for children and young adults to attend and participate in musical therapy activities. Thank you for a unique experience. ”

 Shelly Hill, Placement and Employability Manager at Swansea University said “This is a great opportunity for our student nurses to take a breather from the clinical environment, and to utilise their creative skills.  By doing this they will experience some of the challenges that young people face and how they are overcome by the help of Cerebra.”

Further Information

Rebecca Davies

Executive Press and Media Relations Officer    
Corporate Communications and PR    
Email: rebecca.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk    
Phone: 07384 467071