Responding to the global COVID-19 crisis, UbiSim has launched a powerful new training tool for nursing simulation programs in North America which enables nurse educators to record a Virtual Reality experience and immediately share the video lesson with their students. The Virtual Simulation Recorder functionality, launched to help mitigate educational disruptions to Nursing Schools around North America, provides a very quick way for Clinical Simulation faculty, who own VR headsets, to create and share customized video lessons from a first person VR perspective. Here we take a closer look at the UbiSim VR Nursing educational platform and the new Virtual Simulation Recorder — which is already been signed up for by over 60 Nursing Programs and is available now at no cost!
To overcome campus based learning restrictions and to prepare for the eventual return of Nursing students to colleges across the continent, the UbiSim team has worked tirelessly since the start of COVID-19 to provide meaningful training solutions which support the increased use of healthcare simulation. What is of critical importance to note, however, is the affordability of Virtual Reality platforms like UbiSim which maximize access to a diverse range of clinical skills acquisition over traditional medical simulation manikins, audio-visual recording and debriefing systems, technical support staff and specialized sim lab rooms — many of which are currently off limits anyway due to Coronavirus shutdowns.
With a VR headset, educators and learners can quickly be in almost any scene with any type of patient case — and at fraction of the time, energy and money it takes to provide the same experience in the simulation center. That being said, it should be noted that Virtual Reality will never fully replace high-fidelity simulation experiences as team-based communication, hand-eye coordination, and skills based demonstration are all very important to practice in real life. Instead, VR learning tools like UbiSim, enable educators to increase access to additional simulated patient learning opportunities in compliment to the high-fidelity simulation lab experiences.
UbiSim Focuses on Fidelity for Nursing Simulated VR Learning
University of Montreal Nursing Professor and Simulation Program Coordinator Louise-Andrée Brien shared that nursing “students retain the information because they have lived the experience. That’s the big advantage of virtual reality and UbiSim”. The UbiSim VR platform completely immerses nursing students in a realistic 3D environment providing a truly experiential learning opportunity which compliments patient simulator and standardized patient programs. A powerful example of this desire to provide the highest fidelity possible is the way in which UbiSim enables learners to interact with their patients and their environment. Instead of using a laser pointer to click from a drop down of communicative responses or patient engagement options, UbiSim lets nursing students talk to their patients and use 3D animated hand gestures to interact within the experience.
The UbiSim platform also has a wide range of patients, from a 6-week newborn to a geriatric adult, covering pediatrics, geriatrics, med-surg and nursing fundamentals. On top of the included scenario library, UbiSim also provides a web-based authoring tool which enables nursing educators to modify the experience or create their own. UbiSim fan Caroline White, BScN, RN, CHSE, shared that “UbiSim is transforming healthcare education and practice! Nursing Educators are now able to create interactive learning experiences that include virtual patients and realistic environments that assist with the development of essential critical thinking skills… access to simulation has never been so easy.” And as the platform continues to grow, UbiSim has pledged to add more patients, symptoms, animations and equipment to continuously enrich the learning opportunities.
Beyond the classroom, UbiSim can also be run independently by students in a peer-to-peer session requiring no faculty supervision. Since complex clinical situations can be started and repeated in seconds, countless learners will be able to experience the same standardized simulated event. And with immediate feedback from detailed debriefing assessments following UbiSim simulation activities, learners can easily understand areas for improvement and repeat the experience as many times as needed. The cost savings for access to such digital learning tools should be clear!
A Nursing Simulation Lab Now Accessible From Home
In response to the immediate need to support nursing learners stuck in limbo from the COVID-19 pandemic, the UbiSim team is providing free access to their newly developed Virtual Simulation Recorder system. This is a temporary solution to the global crisis so that Nursing educators who already have access to VR hardware, can create and record simulation videos in the UbiSim Virtual Reality environment to publish and share with learners stuck at home. Learners can watch these custom clinical patient interactions, procedure demonstrations and equipment manipulations, which immediately meet unique educator curriculum requirements.
“Numerous colleges asked us to provide an immediate way to quickly continue high-fidelity simulation training while campuses are closed. As our top priority is to support Nursing educators and their students, we immediately set to work to build and share the new Virtual Simulation Recorder to help them overcome COVID-19 disruptions” says UbiSim Business Director Gauthier Dubruel. Since launching the platform, the UbiSim team has reported that over 60 nursing programs from across North America have already signed up to start using the free tool. “We will continue to help in any way we can!” says Gauthier.
As some states within the US are expanding the use of simulation to meet the lack of missed clinical rotations (now and in the future), UbiSim’s support is well timed for both short-term and long-term benefits.
More About the UbiSim Company
Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, UbiSim is a multidisciplinary team of nursing educators, simulation experts, software engineers and 3D artists passionate about healthcare simulation and virtual reality. Their mission is to use the unique advantages of VR to make nursing simulation more accessible and realistic than ever before. Because better trained nurses, means better and safer patient care!
