Transport nursing students through virtual reality education

With fewer clinical preceptors, limited classroom space, lack of clinical sites, and just not enough faculty, resource-constrained nursing schools are struggling to provide sufficient live clinical experiences for students. Many are turning to virtual reality as a way to provide more accessible and immersive experiences students require to prepare them for the demands of nursing practice.

With vrClinicals for Nursing embedded into the curriculum, nursing schools can help students better prepare for the Next Generation NCLEX® (NGN) and for clinical practice as the experience mimics realistic, in-the-moment decisions that they’ll be expected to make in delivering patient care.

Using realistic, unfolding, multi-patient cases to challenge students to prioritize their actions, vrClinicals for Nursing helps to master clinical judgment skills, build confidence, and make decisions under pressure — all in a low-risk environment.

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vrClinicals for Nursing in action
Discover how the University of Rochester School of Nursing uses vrClinicals to help their nursing students master clinical judgment skills, build confidence, and prioritize / make decisions under pressure.
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Build confidence in low-risk environment

Novice nurses may struggle to gather new information and apply it with confidence. Improve new nurse preparation by challenging them to think critically with the real-life pressures of nursing practice.

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Prepare students for Next Generation NCLEX

With the addition of vrClinicals for Nursing to the nursing curriculum, nursing students will be equipped with the clinical judgment skills to succeed on the NGN and when they transition to clinical practice.

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Overcome resource limitations

Elevate student learning by incorporating virtual reality into your program. Offset the lack of clinical sites, faculty shortages, and resource constraints with a virtual reality learning experience.

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Equip students for real-world practice

Care delivery models have shifted, and newly licensed nurses must be prepared to manage larger caseloads, requiring proficiency in multi-patient prioritization.

Laerdal Medical, Wolters Kluwer, and the National League for Nursing (NLN) collaborate to create a lifelike virtual reality solution
Designed in collaboration with nursing educators and students, vrClinicals for Nursing has been developed to close a critical gap in clinical judgment and prioritization training. With NLN-authored patient scenarios, innovative technology from Laerdal Medical, and Wolters Kluwer's leadership in nursing education, vrClinicals for Nursing prepares students for the real-world pressures of nursing practice.
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Prepare students for real-world nursing practice through VR
vrClinicals for Nursing is a virtual reality solution that prepares students for the pressures of nursing practice.

Use virtual reality as part of a comprehensive solution to build clinical judgment skills

Research shows that students who have developed fundamental nursing skills in virtual environments are likely to feel more comfortable and confident in real clinical settings. With vrClinicals for Nursing, you can give nursing students clinical practice experience necessary to further enhance clinical skills training for better preparedness of nurses. vrClinicals for Nursing delivers students and faculty multiple benefits.

Student wearing VR headset while using vrClinicals

Provides an immersive experience

Transports students to the hospital floor, where they can physically interact with their surroundings; move to different rooms; get medications, and bring them to patients.
 

Supports learning objectives

Optimally builds clinical judgment through in-the-moment decision-making that allows students to prioritize and reflect on the actions they make by providing rationale and debriefing.
 

Delivers multi-patient experiences

Similar to real-world practice, students take care of multiple patients of varying complexity in order to learn how to prioritize as their cases unfold. Each of the patient cases triggers moments that require prioritization.

Builds on simulation

vrClinicals for Nursing builds on critical clinical decision-making skills developed in vSim® for Nursing — progressing from simulated, single-patient scenarios to multi-patient, complex care scenarios.

Optimizes school resources

vrClinicals for Nursing provides an alternative to the lack of clinical sites and resource-intensive clinical days, allowing them to scale while giving students opportunities to practice interventions.

Offers nursing practice in safe space

As students navigate the virtual environment, they experience interruptions and events that unfold. In-the-moment decision-making challenges students to reprioritize and delegate based on new data.

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vrClinicals for Nursing is co-created with instructors and simulation lab managers from leading nursing schools

  • Assistant Director, Villanova University
  • Nursing student, Herzing University
  • Assistant professor, Lake Superior State University
  • Nursing student, Lake Superior State University

“vrClinicals for Nursing has provided our students the opportunity to care for multiple patients. It feels real to them, and it gives them confidence. The students like it, and they take the prioritization of patients very seriously. We like how we can discuss the choices they make in small groups with other students, expanding the value of the educational experience. I think immersive virtual reality will enhance how nurses are educated in the future. We are proud to be beta testers and contributors to its development.”

Patricia Prieto, MBA, BSN, RN, CHSE
Assistant Director, Simulation & Learning Resource Center, Villanova University

“I loved it. I'm excited for it. The more realistic it is, the easier it will be for students in the future once they transition into practice. It seems basic, but when you grab supplies and go to one of the side[s] of the patient, but should actually be on the other side, that is something important to remember that can be a time saver in the moment.

…I absolutely think that when you're reading an update — especially for the second round that we did — and priority patients change, that's exactly what happens in a nursing shift. A patient may be stable for now, but then their condition deteriorates and they suddenly become a priority. That was what made the experience realistic.”

Madeline Martinez
Nursing Student, Herzing University

“This is a very functional tool for student learning. I can use it to teach students at all levels of their learning. When trialing the product, I felt real feelings of needing to prioritize. I experienced nervousness, thinking to myself, ‘I have not seen the patient who is complaining of leg pain yet.’ I found myself worried because he may have developed a DVT that I needed to assess. What if he gets himself out of bed while I am caring for another patient and the DVT moves? As an experienced nurse, these feelings felt real. As an educator, we want our students to be immersed in real environments. We want them to have the full experience that includes feelings, emotion, the ability to develop intuition, and critical thinking."

Jaimee Gerrie
Assistant professor, Lake Superior State University

“It definitely tested my ability to prioritize. It assessed my ability to quickly take some information down from their sheets and pick the important information out. What are you taking from their EHR that you really, really need right now? What's red flagging you? To know what red flags to look for is something that every nurse should have by the end of nursing school.”

Olivia Blumenschein
Nursing student, Lake Superior State University

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