Wolters Kluwer Health and Laerdal Medical have officially launched vrClinicals for Nursing to support a new generation of practice-ready nurses through the purposeful integration of simulation across the curriculum. After months of collaboration with some of the United States’ leading university nursing programs, Wolters Kluwer Health and Laerdal Medical have officially launched vrClinicals for Nursing to support a new generation of practice-ready nurses. One of the largest challenges for nursing students and new graduate nurses is the ability to prioritize care among multiple patients. Using realistic multi-patient scenarios, the virtual reality (VR) based learning solution helps address today’s gaps in nursing education and the nursing workforce by allowing students to transition from the classroom to a busy hospital ward where they encounter true-to-life challenges such as prioritizing care among multiple patients and the demands of practice. This HealthySimulation.com article reviews vrClinical for Nursing and this new partnership.
Collaboration on vrClinicals
To prepare nursing students to become new graduate nurses, vrClinicals for Nursing was designed with instructors and students in collaboration with Laerdal Medical to evolve the multi-patient scenarios authored by the National League for Nursing (NLN). Together, these organizations executed on a vision to bring the benefits of VR to nursing education that goes beyond the inherent limitations of real-life clinical practice students and nursing educators face today.
Laerdal and Wolters Kluwer collaborated with VR-ready nursing schools to test vrClinical for Nursing prior to the launch. Some of the nursing programs were:
- Villanova University
- Indiana University
- University of Rochester
- University of Massachusetts Boston
- University of Central Florida
- University of Virginia
Targeting Unpreparedness to Reduce Dissatisfaction and Improve Patient Outcomes
A recent study found that 55% of new nurses have made medical errors, as result of inexperience and rushing, to name a few reasons. To face the pressures of practice without the skills to recover and build resilience creates a high dissatisfaction for young nursing professionals. In fact, nearly one-third (32.8%) of registered nurses left their job within the first year. With VR, nursing students can build and practice the skill sets needed that mimick clinical practice decision-making in a busy hospital setting, and prioritize care for multiple patients and their competing care demands. These new technologies allow for scalability that was previously unattainable for nursing schools. An entire cohort of students can now run through multi-patient scenarios and receive feedback immediately after from their instructors.
Michelle Moulton, DNP, RN, CHSE, CNE, Senior Manager for the Center for Innovation in Education Excellence at the National League for Nursing states: “When bringing vrClinicals for Nursing to market, we aimed to focus on transition to practice – where we identified the challenges that learners face when beginning their professional practice as nurses. We see clinical judgment as an essential and core skill of nursing practice – a skill that has a steep hurdle to overcome for many new graduate nurses. VR offerings provide opportunities to rehearse clinical reasoning skills that reflect the complexity of patient care and reality of nursing practice.”
Julie Stegman, Vice President, Nursing Segment, Health Learning, Research & Practice at Wolters Kluwer, Health states: “Unlike any other simulation modality, VR provides students with a sense of immediacy and realism from being in the moment, because all of your senses are engaged. We know the transition from school into practice can be extremely difficult and it’s our responsibility to work with nurse educators to help students truly prepare for their real-life jobs. By better preparing nurses through their transition to practice, they can become more clinically confident – which allows for higher job satisfaction and better patient care.”
vrClinicals not only helps nursing students build the key skills to transition from education to practice, but the solution is also built to help prepare students for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) – which is the required adaptive test for nursing graduates to successfully pass to be licensed as a Registered Nurse. In 2023, students began taking the Next Generation NCLEX exam. The Next Generation NCLEX exam not only tests on what new graduate nurses know, but also on how the new graduate nurse think. The new test is now focused on the evaluation of the student’s ability to demonstrate the use of clinical judgment when responding to clinical questions, much like how the new graduate nurse would need to think on the job.
View the HealthySimulation.com LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Competency-Based Clinical Education Solutions from Laerdal Medical to learn more!
In May 2023, Laerdal has released an open access eBook on How Simulation Can Help Prep New Nurse Graduates for Practice: A Guide for Residency Programs. As a leader in clinical simulation, Laerdal realized the gap in academia and readiness for practice for new graduate nurses (NGN). To address the gap, this eBook is intended to provide healthcare organizations with an introduction to how patient simulation can help your New Nurse Graduates (NGNs) make a safe and effective transition from academia to the bedside.
More About Laerdal
Laerdal is one of the world’s premiere vendors of medical simulation and clinical education equipment. Laerdal Medical began their mission to “Help Save Lives” in 1960 with the invention of the CPR training manikin called Resusci Anne. For over sixty years, Laerdal has provided the global healthcare simulation community with clinical task training and high fidelity manikin products ranging from the Laerdal pocket mask to the Laerdal SimMan 3G. The company boasts more than 2000 employees in over 26 countries with as many as 50 international distributors. In 2019 Laerdal purchased B-Line Medical to broaden their capacity to help simulation centers manage, capture, and analyze simulation activities efficiently.
Laerdal has partnered with key medical and public healthcare societies, such as the American Heart Association and the National League for Nursing, to provide educational curriculum for healthcare students and professionals. Laerdal Medical supports healthcare education training in a range of fields including EMS, military, hospital, nursing, and voluntary organizations just to name a few.
More About Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer is a global provider of professional information, software solutions, and services for clinicians, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. The company seeks to accomplish the mission of delivering deep impact when impact matters most through protecting people’s health and prosperity and contributing to a safe and just society. To accomplish this goal, Wolters Kluwer utilizes trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that drive effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. For example, the company’s clinical simulation solutions provide leading EHR training, virtual simulations, and evidence-based answers and guidance at point-of-learning and point-of-care.
