Virtual reality comes to the Simulation Health Centre
Nursing students at the University of Lethbridge have a new tool to help them perfect their nursing skills. The Simulation Health Centre (SHC) recently purchased two virtual reality (VR) headsets that can transport students into various health scenarios, such as a hospital room or vaccination clinic, and provide them with a realistic situation within which to practice their skills.
“VR can help prepare learners to think critically and assist in bridging the gap between theory and practice,” says nursing instructor and SHC coordinator Lisa Johnson. “It can also provide learners with rich, interactive experiences that complement traditional training methods.”
Along with helping nursing students master technical skills, the VR scenarios allow students to think critically, adapt quickly and work as part of a team. They learn to make vital decisions without worrying about harming a patient. For example, one scenario involves a pregnant woman during a routine checkup.
“When you check all her vital signs, you find she has extremely high blood pressure. So, then you have to phone and say you have a patient in need of critical care,” says Joanne Williams, SHC lab technician. “She gets whisked off to a hospital room, and then you have to treat her with a medication and report to the doctor, and talk to her partner, who’s extremely anxious about what’s going on.”
Williams says the VR headsets provide a fully immersive experience, which helps students integrate the technical skills, clinical judgment, communication and collaboration skills that they’ll need in their future careers.
The SHC is an integral part of the Nursing Education in Southwestern Alberta (NESA) program. It augments the nursing curriculum, helping prepare nurses who are clinically competent, compassionate, confident and ready to lead in an ever-changing health care landscape.
Nursing students use the centre for labs, simulation experiences and nursing skills practice. In SHC labs, students learn the complex nursing skills required to practice safely and effectively in highly acute clinical environments. Lab instructors are experienced registered nurses with knowledge and experience in a variety of clinical areas and special training in simulation-based education. They provide instruction using current evidence and best practice standards.
Along with VR headsets, the simulation centre has other high-tech tools that help prepare students, including high-fidelity manikins. As the SHC lab technician, Williams is responsible for technical elements and ensuring the high-fidelity manikin is functioning properly. The manikin has many features that add to the realism of a real patient scenario for learners, such as pupils that react to light, heart and breath sounds, the ability to see the chest rise and fall with breathing, palpable pulses, eyes that blink and even the ability to sweat and bleed. Williams can also add other effects, or moulage, to the manikins, which further add to the realism. This includes rashes, bruising, flushed cheeks and edema to the legs. One of the learner experiences involves putting the manikin into cardiac arrest.
“In this scenario, we run the students through what they might see in a hospital setting, with the code team coming in, providing chest compressions, administering the emergency medications and delivering the shocks through a simulated defibrillator, or LifePak, which allows the students to see and practice with similar equipment used in the actual clinical setting,” says Johnson.
When students practice CPR on the manikin, instructors, via a laptop, can tell if the students are pushing hard enough and fast enough. The real-time feedback and debriefing afterward help solidify their skills and knowledge, which students can then take forward in their clinical practice.
“In these innovative learning environments, nursing students are not just participants; they are our future leaders in the nursing profession,” says Johnson.