ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Students at Maria University are stepping into the world of virtual reality to take their education to the next level, but it’s not a game.
Since opening in January, Maria College Andrea Lewis Schieck School of Nursing has introduced virtual reality to hundreds of students to enhance classroom instruction and lab work, according to Jason Corley, director of the Center for Academic Innovation.
“There’s a nursing shortage in New York state, and in other parts of the country. We need more nurses, but one of the problems is that to become a nurse, you have to participate in and complete a clinical placement, which is a period of time spent in a hospital with real patients. The problem is that because of the nursing shortage, there aren’t many nurses who can devote the time to supervise and oversee other students during their clinical placements,” he said. “VR could be one technology that can help solve this problem.”
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According to a release announcing the center’s opening, the center is the only nursing-focused facility in the nation and was made possible with $770,088 in federal funding as part of the 2023 Congressional Spending Package, with support from Rep. Paul Tonko.
“I’m most pleased that Maria College is on the cutting edge of education and healthcare, and I think our students graduate well prepared for the workforce and ready to contribute to their communities,” President Lynn Ortale said. “This is just part of the scaffolding of the education we provide at Maria. Students engage with didactic content — lectures and textbooks that everyone is familiar with — but then they go into the world of virtual reality and really understand how it works.”
The centre will include 20 computer stations, more than 30 virtual reality headsets, 3D printing, drone technology, digital tutoring powered by ChatGPT and more.
“Students may go into clinical placements, but if they’re unlucky, they may not encounter common scenarios or patient conditions, or they may rarely encounter the most critical situations. This simulation gives them an opportunity to come together and practice those things, and they don’t have to worry about failing,” Corley said. “The great thing about this technology is that it allows students to practice their critical thinking, communication and collaboration skills before they see their first patient, so they’re already leveling up.”
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Following lectures and textbook study, nursing students at Maria College work on so-called low-fidelity mannequins, which are often used to teach psychomotor skills such as CPR and inserting intravenous catheters. Then, at the Academic Innovation Center, students have the opportunity to work alone as nurses or with other nursing students to explore virtual scenarios in which virtual patients actually react to their actions. This is followed by work with high-fidelity mannequins, which replicate human features such as breathing patterns, heart rate and airway problems and can be used to create realistic clinical scenarios that mimic the unpredictability of real-world patient care.
“I’m currently working as a licensed practical nurse and I love interacting with patients, connecting with them and seeing their progress,” Yogis Joseph, a senior at Maria College, told CBS 6. “It gives me a sense of accomplishment when I see them (patients) come in with a certain condition and go home more independent, so I feel like I’m a part of their healing journey.”
When CBS6 visited the Academic Innovation Center, Joseph was working with other nursing students in a room filled with computers, headsets lined the walls and students were able to move around the center, sitting on circular mats to avoid bumping into each other as their movements were mimicked in virtual scenarios.
“I just worked with a patient with cystic fibrosis in VR,” Joseph says. “You can check their vital signs, give them medication, and experience everything you would do in a clinical setting. You can administer respiratory therapy or albuterol, and then you see their oxygen levels go up, their blood pressure improve. Instead of practicing at home and making up scenarios in your head, you get to experience real-time reactions to what’s actually happening.”
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But implementing virtual reality can also bring challenges, which Corley said the university is addressing on a number of levels.
“We make every effort to make our students comfortable first, because if they’re not comfortable, they can’t learn, and then ultimately, they know how to use the technology and be able to solve any technical issues they might encounter,” he said. “As you can see with our students, they all have different types of head straps, to accommodate different head sizes, hats, hairstyles, and also because everyone’s eyes are a little farther apart and the headsets only accommodate that certain range.”
The center also has a headset loaner program so students can learn together even if they’re not physically in the same classroom. As technology continues to advance, Corley told CBS6 he hopes to see VR offerings expanded.
“Today we’re doing nursing practice, tomorrow we’ll be incorporating occupational therapy,” he said. “VR applications such as an anatomy and physiology app, where students can shrink down, so to speak, on the Magic School Bus and travel inside the human body, are a great introduction to human anatomy. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I say a VR experience is worth a million.”
