Immersive virtual reality training from Wolters Kluwer and Laerdal Medical transports nursing students to a busy hospital floor

Wolters Kluwer, Health and Laerdal Medical today announced the development of vrClinicals for Nursing, an immersive, virtual reality (VR) nursing education experience designed to strengthen practice readiness. vrClinicals is built on evidence-based scenarios authored by the National League for Nursing (NLN) that simulate a realistic hospital environment, including challenging elements such as multiple patient scenarios, and interruptions to better prepare students in delivering quality patient care.

Limitations that impact real-life clinical training for nursing students, including a lack of physical clinical site availability and an unpredictable mix of patients, have opened the door for safe, resource-effective training modalities, such as VR, that offer a greater breadth of experiences. Students using vrClinicals for Nursing with a Meta™ Quest 2 headset will be immersed in an authentic, virtual clinical environment where they must navigate real challenges nurses encounter on the job – such as prioritizing multiple patients with varied, complex cases, interruptions from colleagues, or patient requests.

Nursing shortage puts pressure on new nurses

Newly licensed nurses are increasingly managing higher patient caseloads and must refine their independent clinical judgement earlier in their careers, especially with the impacts of the current nursing shortage. To better prepare today’s nursing students for this environment with a backdrop of limited clinical opportunities, educational tools using metaverse related technologies can provide a broad range of experiences that reflect the expectations of real-world practice.

Promoting clinical preparedness with virtual reality

With fewer on-site educational opportunities available, VR technology is meeting the need for realistic, experiential learning for student nurses that allows them to receive real-time feedback in a hospital setting, without putting patients at risk.

vrClinicals for Nursing can be used as a building block on top of the critical clinical decision-making skills developed in vSim® for Nursing. Progressing from the screen-based, simulated single-patient scenario in vSim for Nursing to the advanced multi-patient, complex care scenarios within vrClinicals allows students to virtually practice in a clinical setting.