A new virtual reality (VR) training programme created by the Centre for Advanced Training Systems at the University of Newcastle will enable emergency department nurses throughout NSW to obtain vital real-world experience in stroke care.
The TACTICS VR programme offers nurses immersive, interactive, and evidence-based training to enhance outcomes for patients presenting with stroke in response to the need for rural, regional, and distant areas to have access to frequent, high-quality training.
Stroke is a time-sensitive medical emergency, according to programme director and University of Newcastle Professor Rohan Walker, and ensuring quick response and treatment times is crucial to preserving lives and enhancing stroke recovery.
According to Professor Walker, the TACTICS VR training curriculum gives emergency nurses crucial experience in how to manage those initial crucial moments when a patient comes down with a stroke. It accomplishes this by modelling actual-world situations.
This VR training is crucial in rural, local, and distant settings because there is a greater possibility that personnel will have less expertise handling stroke patients there since there are fewer instances of stroke elsewhere and because they have less opportunity to receive high-quality training there.
Our earlier research demonstrates that healthcare personnel find the curriculum to be user-friendly and that it increases their confidence in providing best-practice clinical treatment. This is the fourth stroke training session the team has created with TACTICS VR technology.
The TACTICS VR stroke training programme simulates a real-world emergency room within a VR headset thanks to a partnership between the NSW Health Agency for Clinical Innovation, NSW Health nurses, and the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Advanced Training Systems.
According to Dr. Steven Maltby, director of the TACTICS VR Project, nurses must manage their workflow processes while undergoing training in a range of settings, including pre-hospital evaluation and planning, preliminary assessments of patients, scanning as well as tracking of the individual receiving treatment, and their agreement.
The training was created with a focus on the nurse’s function in the management of an emergency stroke, according to Professor Walker.
Walker said that the purpose of the education is to raise nursing procedural awareness in hyper-acute therapy and highlight the importance of excellent cooperation and communication in the initial 24 hours after a stroke.
With a focus on smaller hospitals where employees may have less exposure to stroke, 25 VR headsets have already been given to regional and urban hospitals.
Dr. Jean-Frédéric Levesque, chief executive of the Agency for Clinical Innovation and deputy secretary for clinical innovation and research for NSW Health, described the VR training as yet another cutting-edge way the public health system was utilising technology to enhance patient care.
Dr. Levesque stated that in outlying areas where the nearest hospital does not see as many stroke patients as its metropolitan equivalents, VR training enables patients and physicians to access the most effective stroke care.
The outstanding NSW Telestroke Service, which uses video consultation to provide individuals living in rural and remote NSW with speedy access to professional stroke evaluation and treatment, functions in combination with this fresh educational curriculum. Telestroke is now being used in 23 hospitals across the state.
