Wolters Kluwer and Laerdal Medical launch virtual simulation solution to support higher clinical fidelity in nursing education

The next generation of vSim for Nursing delivers an improved learning experience for students, offering highly realistic patient encounters to help build clinical judgment skills.

To improve the fidelity of virtual simulation, develop practice-ready nurses with strong clinical judgment skills, and help address practice readiness gaps due to limited clinical training sites, Wolters Kluwer, Health and Laerdal Medical today announced the next generation of vSim® for Nursing. vSim for Nursing provides real-world, evidence-based scenarios written by the National League for Nursing that allow nursing students to actively develop their clinical judgment, competence, and confidence.

Using the next generation of vSim for Nursing, students are immersed in a safe, dynamic environment with diverse patients and an enhanced 3D design. Mirroring real clinical practice, students learn to recognize and analyze cues - such as pain, paleness, urticaria - effectively to take action and respond to unfolding visual and audio responses from the patient to improve clinical reasoning skills. vSim also focuses on elevating students’ interprofessional communication skills through the new situation, background, assessment, and recommendation (SBAR) feature which produces an SBAR score based on the students’ report.

According to Jacqueline Semaan, MSN, CHSE, RNC-LRN Nursing Skills Lab Coordinator, Simulation Coordinator, Lake Superior College, “The updates to vSim for Nursing offer a number of important enhancements for our students. Students enjoy walking through the entire clinical judgment formation process, including the opportunity to practice communication. This is truly one of the most important additions to the product in that it allows students to apply what we talked about and then be tested/graded on their learning. They can draw from that experience and possibly use it in the future in a real patient care scenario. This enhancement has led students to take their vSim courses more seriously, and that is very encouraging as a nurse educator.”

In 2014, vSim was introduced as the first virtual simulation solution for nursing education as part of Lippincott® CoursePoint+. Studies show 98% of students using vSim recommended it for future use. The next-generation online learning solution will be available for demonstration at the hybrid International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare Conference (Booth #126) taking place from January 15-19, 2022.

“We collaborated closely with nurse educators throughout the design and development process to deliver the next generation vSim platform with increased educational value, user experience and clinical realism. This allows students to feel more immersed in the experience as if they are in that real-world setting with the patient," said Cansu Akarsu, Vice President of Healthcare Education at Laerdal Medical. “Tablet compatibility allows students to practice clinical judgment, take assessments and hone their decision-making skills independently, anytime anywhere.”

“Nursing schools are under immense pressure to train and prepare students for practice, and this has only intensified as the nursing shortage has grown,” adds Julie Stegman, Vice President of the Nursing Segment of the Health Learning, Research & Practice segment at Wolters Kluwer. “Virtual simulation can provide an essential resource for nursing schools that are facing a shortage of clinical sites and resources to ensure all of their students receive quality clinical training that can be done anytime, anywhere. The experiential learning in vSim coupled with immediate, standardized feedback allows nursing programs to build their students’ clinical judgment skills, which is fantastic preparation for the Next Generation NCLEX® exam.”

vSim for Nursing is available now for Fundamentals and Medical-Surgical Nursing as a standalone product or integrated as part of Lippincott CoursePoint+, giving nursing students the necessary tools to become clinically competent nurses. Additional course areas will be added throughout 2022.