2022 Funding Projects

With more than 450 nurses working at Bothwell, members of the Clinical Education and Nursing Education departments focused their funding request on nurse learning. Kim Perez, Clinical Education director, and Laura Weisenburger, Nursing Education educator/recruiter, were approved to purchase a one-year license for a virtual reality (VR) program that simulates lifelike scenarios for training purposes.

“Our CEO Lori Wightman read an article about VR training and asked us to look into it,” Weisenburger said. “We ended up going with the Oculus system, which a lot of people may be familiar with from a gaming standpoint. Kim and I have personal headsets, so we were already familiar with how the technology worked. It’s the same just with scenarios made for health care.”

Trainees wear a headset and hand controllers and are dropped into 360-degree active learning environments. They can look, speak and move about in the scenario and interact with avatars and equipment. They can practice giving commands and reacting to situations they might not see very often or are too dangerous to practice in real life. At the end of each scenario, trainees receive a score and if necessary, coached on how to reach proficiency level.

Ashley Schroder took just two attempts to pass a scenario on malignant hyperthermia, which is a severe reaction to certain drugs used for anesthesia. Without prompt treatment, complications can be fatal. Schroder is a registered nurse in Bothwell’s Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and was impressed with her VR experience.

“It’s really high-tech and reminded me of a video game,” she said. “It puts the ‘sim’ in simulation but is pretty life-like. Malignant hyperthermia is rare but it is serious so this was a great opportunity to practice something we don’t see often so we can be prepared if it does happen. Overall, I was super impressed.”

Perez said VR training checks a lot of boxes when it comes to providing ongoing training for nursing staff and supporting their professional development.

“It’s interactive, which is more interesting and learner-centric than training that takes place on a computer or in a classroom with a static mannequin,” she said. “And it’s mobile; the equipment is simply a laptop, headset and controllers and can be carried to wherever nursing staff are, and sessions are anywhere from five to 30 minutes. I think it also shows staff we are invested in giving them state-of-the-art learning opportunities to provide the best care to patients.”

Both Weisenburger and Perez are veteran nurses and agreed the focus of health care has changed over their careers.

“Patients in the hospital these days are sicker and have more complex illnesses,” Weisenburger said. “That complexity increases the expectations for nurses, too. Whatever we can do to stay up with technology and support them with where they’re at in their nurse learning, we’re going to do it.”