In December, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare accredited George Mason University’s Lab for Immersive Technologies and Simulation, an innovative new program designed to bring a new dimension to healthcare education and clinical training: virtual reality.
The lab, housed in the university’s College of Public Health, is the only lab accredited by the Society for Simulation of Public Health, an organization based in Minneapolis that uses simulations to advance healthcare.
Mason’s College of Public Health Dean Melissa Perry said the accreditation recognizes the lab’s unique opportunities for students to learn and grow as future healthcare professionals using virtual simulations. In fall 2023, Perry launched a $10 million fundraising campaign to give students virtual reality-enhanced healthcare experiences in their classrooms.
“We’re excited to bring virtual reality into more public health colleges,” said Perry.
Virtual reality is a computer-generated, three-dimensional virtual environment in which users interact. It is accessible with computers that project three-dimensional information using displays and identification sensors.
Society for Simulation in Healthcare recognized the lab’s work to build virtual reality experiences for students in nursing and other healthcare occupations. At 8,000 square feet, the transdisciplinary research center holds modular spaces replicating practice settings for student learning.
“Virtual reality simulations are a game changer for public health education,” Perry said. “The college leads in creating innovative curriculums and custom content that integrates into certified simulation educator-led lessons.”
Change in perspective
Perry initially felt skeptical about incorporating virtual reality into student learning. She believed it was a trending learning model and that students wouldn’t efficiently solve real-world problems.
However, after trying virtual reality, her perspective changed.
In October 2022, Perry used a virtual reality simulation to save the life of a fictional patient going through a psychosis episode. She assisted law enforcement in helping to restrain the distraught patient. In the simulation, the patient suffocated from too many people climbing on top of him.
Despite a tragic outcome in that virtual situation, she recognized that students could use the technology to handle emergency responses.
“Everyone can experience the emergency response protocol to prepare themselves for the real world,” Perry said. “That’s what we want.”
Learning with experience
Perry believes virtual reality helps students increase their collaboration and critical thinking skills in low-risk and safe settings.
Perry added that two students listen to a simulation on headsets connected to two small display screens. Then, three to four more students watch their classmates’ headset activities on a large projected screen attached to the display screens.
“You get to observe virtual reality with your classmates,” Perry said. “Whatever they see is projected onto the wall.”
Professors on Perry’s team guide students through virtual reality experiences to practice healthcare. Students use the technology to immerse themselves in nursing and other high-stress situations while receiving feedback during their experiences.
Perry also sees virtual reality as a way for students to retain more information. She said students can better retain information by acting out a scenario and understanding how to approach simulated healthcare protocols over time.
“You can create many scenarios,” Perry said. “We want to start at a place where all learners feel they’re being respected and prepared to enter this virtual space.”
Overcoming lab constraints
Perry and her team navigated many challenges to advance healthcare education with virtual reality.
She struggled to develop custom curricula and certify faculty to use virtual reality. Some class content took months to create.
Having fewer instructors certified to use virtual reality limited her ability to teach as many students as she wanted. “Your instructors have to be very well trained first,” Perry said. “It takes time, care, and thought to teach students the competencies, dynamics, and pitfalls of a case.”
Securing additional space and attracting students also became difficult.
Perry wants the college’s 3,200 students to use virtual reality at least once during their undergraduate programs.
She explained the challenge of building a 24-by-36-feet space where students could move freely and safely. Some students also suffered from motion sickness, while others experienced a lack of access and learning disabilities, preventing them from using virtual reality.
Perry made the lab optional for students who didn’t want to participate and paired every student with an instructor. The instructors sat down with students to explain how the simulations worked and asked them to observe if they didn’t want to participate. According to Perry, students also benefited from observing how their classmates used virtual reality.
“This technology can make a difference in training healthcare providers to meet the needs of Americans,” Perry said.
Perry sees unlimited potential in the public using virtual reality to learn and succeed in healthcare.
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