This fall, Lane nursing students practiced typical clinical work: washing their hands, adjusting a guard rail, moving a patient, changing bedding, consulting a head nurse about medication, and more. Their patient, Lisa Rae, was typical, too: a slightly forgetful, elderly woman with a kind voice and concerns about falling. However, she was also completely virtual.
Thanks to a generous grant from Lane Community Health Council, Health Professions was able to set up a $25,000, state-of-the-art virtual reality (VR) training lab. It’s more than a gimmick. One hour of VR counts as two hours of clinical work, and the software automatically checks off required tasks as students complete them, freeing up time for their instructor, Christine Bradshaw to focus on evaluating and guiding students.
“VR Simulation is an evidence-based learning modality,” Bradshaw explained. “It provides our nursing students deep learning in a safe environment.”
The Meta headsets take only a bit of getting used to. Students laugh as they get oriented, and test their coordination with a high five. Two students go at a time, while one stands by for safety. The rest of the class can watch the full-room on the projector or the first-person feed on an iPad, At the front of the classroom, Bradshaw triggers prerecorded dialogue lines as students interact with their virtual patient, cueing the students on tasks like raising bed rails or consulting a head nurse. The software will automatically check off some required actions (like washing hands), freeing the instructor to give more qualitative feedback. Sessions are capped at 30 minutes to prevent cyber-sickness, and the headsets are sanitized with UV light between uses.
The new setup has already made an impression. “Other CTE [Career and Technical Education] programs are beginning to explore the same technology for their own classes,” said Health Professions Project Coordinator, Tyler McFall. “Instructors recognize how this unique training model can really enhance students’ learning.”
For Lane’s nursing students, it’s a fun, safe way to learn skills they’ll need in stressful situations. What used to require a hospital floor can now unfold inside a classroom, giving students the chance to practice, make mistakes, and build confidence so they can be their best when they meet a real Lisa Rae.
Lane Community College educates over 17,000 students annually at six locations across Lane County and online. Students and alumni from all 50 states and 79 countries create more than an $675 million dollar impact on the local economy, helping to support more than 8,900 local jobs. Lane provides affordable, quality, professional technical and college transfer programs; business development and employee training; academic, language and life skills development; and lifelong personal development and enrichment courses.