As nursing faculty, we want to engage our students in exploring and participating in ways that suit their individual learning styles and needs. The use of various emerging technologies such as virtual reality, simulation software, and telehealth has been proven to be very effective in teaching and learning in nursing.
These tools can serve to imitate clinical environments and contexts facilitating realistic experiences. For instance, clinical scenarios can be developed electronically or in high-fidelity simulation labs and delivered to students offering a safe environment to practice skills like making clinical decisions, information retrieval, and assessment and diagnostic reasoning. With this, students increase their level of confidence for their first clinical experience.
Virtual Reality Worlds
Second Life is a 3-D, virtual world where users can choose avatars to represent themselves. Avatars can move through the environment and interact with other users.
Shadow Health simulation software is a digital clinical experience (DCE) allowing students the opportunity to practice health assessment and physical examination skills on a Digital Standardized Patient (DSP).
Students are also asked to write a reflective statement about their DCE and DSP. Evaluating transcripts produced from student and DSP conversations allow faculty the opportunity to assess the learning needs of each individual student throughout the semester and takes away subjectivity in grading.
Virtual worlds and simulation software can often offer unique and customized experiences in a safe environment for students that might not be offered or available in traditional or online courses.
In addition, these scenarios or experiences may offer students insight, helping them gain a better understanding of a topic, situation, or setting. These electronic simulations can enhance students’ learning experiences where they must think critically independent of faculty or clinical mentors.
Telehealth
Telehealth has the ability to connect rural providers with their patients. This is particularly important for states suffering from healthcare provider shortages, as distance no longer is a barrier to healthcare access.
The Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) defines telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical healthcare, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include video conferencing, the Internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.
Telehealth offers students learning opportunities as well as they engage with patients in real-time through video conferencing. This technology is particularly useful for psychiatric mental health providers. Physical examinations can be performed using medical instruments enabled with technology such as a specialized scope that can capture images of skin cancer or a stethoscope which can perform an EKG reading and transmit it to a cardiologist for an immediate diagnosis. Students engaging in patient care through the use of telehealth receive immediate feedback and confirmation in diagnosis enhancing their learning experiences.
Example Simulation Software Scenario
Tina, a 28-year-old female patient, moves, talks, and understands over 250,000 questions (Caroline Short, personal communication, October 17, 2016). Students take an initial history and follow Tina weekly managing her health problems, which include diabetes and asthma.
Each patient encounter is documented in an electronic medical record (EHR) where students learn to organize the history and examination findings and develop a treatment plan.
Empathy and patient education are encouraged throughout the patient interview; important skills to be learned for building trust and increasing patient satisfaction and compliance.