13-05-2025
UVM nurses practice at state-of-the art 'virtual hospital'
BURLINGTON, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) – The practice nursing students can get has always been limited by the number of patients, and by real-world limits on space and resources. But in the University of Vermont's (UVM's) Clinical Simulation Laboratory, these limits are a thing of the past.
This spring, the Department of Nursing at UVM introduced training using virtual reality, or VR for short. With the lab's 16 new VR headsets, nursing students can interact with simulated patients and train on specific surgical tasks.
Sarah Manacek, the department's director of simulation education, explained why VR is ground-breaking for trainees. 'Virtual reality is full immersion into a digital world. Students experience complete immersion into a virtual hospital, where avatars are the same size as humans, follow students with their eyes, and respond using natural language processing and machine learning.
'The goal of simulation is to replicate reality as closely as possible.'
The 12,600 square-foot facility, which opened in 2011, already includes complex mannequins who use electrical stimuli to 'react' as if they were human, 3D body-part models for skills training, and a program where community members ranging from 18 to over 80 years old play the roles of 'standardized patients'. But Manacek thinks that VR can provide something other methods can't.
'By turning to VR, we've been able to increase simulation opportunities without expanding our physical space … Simulations that require time to set up and repeat, like a patient hemorrhage, are a great opportunity for VR scenarios, and VR also excels for scenarios that require critical thinking and decision-making.'
Julia Otterbein, a UVM Nursing graduate, said the new VR techology has been a positive aspect of her learning experience. 'I am a very hands-on learner, and I figure out new skills by trying them out. Being able to run through different patient experiences and diagnoses via this program has been amazing.'
To date, the nursing program at UVM has completed over a thousand VR sessions, totaling 321 hours of active simulation. This fall, VR will also become part of the graduate nursing curriculum.
UVM Nursing celebrated its annual Nurses Week last week, celebrating the impact nurses have on patients and nursing trainees.
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