In sessions at the Palos Hills and Blue Island campuses, the Moraine Valley nursing project combines VR technology and refurbished simulators.
Moraine Valley Community College’s nursing school is keeping up with the times, having recently completed its first cycle with the help of virtual reality technology in class and acquiring highly capable simulators.
Nursing classes at the Palos Hills main campus and the Blue Island Education Center utilised 25 Oculus headsets, along with specialised software to mimic the experience of being in a hospital and nursing a patient recently. Students put on the headgear and walk into a virtual medical room, where they converse with a patient who replies and reveals their symptoms. At this point, the VR participants have to decide about the appropriate form of therapy for best results. When a patient becomes unwell, trainees must either call a doctor or assist the patient in recuperating. During this process, the students can examine statistics and look at X-rays like they’re in the same space with the affected person.
Faculty placed a variety of patient replies and reports into the software system to provide students with multiple real-world scenarios. According to their feedback, they appreciated the learning experience.
Moraine Valley nursing instructor Georgina Murphy, who helped create the software system, said that all students felt that the VR training was plausible. Everyone was having a good time whilst also picking up new skills. Murphy said that it offers students a device to apply what they were taught into practice.
Students still rehearse techniques in class using SIM patients, who are replicas that mimic human processes like heartbeats and respirations. This virtual offering promotes critical reasoning and appraising situations in which these prospective nurses must make important decisions.
Natalie Wigginton, an Oak Lawn student, remarked that she was ecstatic to be a participant in the first batch of the Nursing Program to witness the virtual reality feature. She hadn’t ever experienced VR technology before and had no idea about what to anticipate. Following her participation in the education and simulation, Wiggington started liking what it had to offer. She said that it helped her speed up her development as a nurse.
Any nursing class at any level can use the VR powered equipment. If learners have an Oculus VR headset, they are able to access the programme by Moraine Valley after logging into their accounts.
Murphy intends to produce a digital guide book based on textbook information to help learners get a clear idea of the things being taught. Only a few institutions possess the technology and she is unaware of another community college incorporating it in a fashion similar to the Nursing Program.
To replace its Laerdal patient simulators, the department ordered two CAE Apollo high-fidelity adult patient simulators. Due to the tetherless system, the technology is simpler to build and operate, and it is not limited to a single area. The simulators and their peripherals such as a tablet or a computer, are outfitted with state-of-the-art technology. Soon, professors at the institution will start to be trained on the system soon.
