REGINA — The nurses of tomorrow will now have a first-hand experience of virtual reality (VR) technology at the University of Regina (U of R).
On Thursday, the U of R opened the Nursing Virtual Reality Hub, an important part of the nursing curriculum, said Robin Evans, Dean of Nursing.
“As our seat numbers increase, we have increased capacity issues and challenges in the clinical setting, and so this provides us with the opportunity to have students do some of their clinical experience here.”
Evans also alluded to preparing students for the clinical setting.
“Looking after patients and looking after care situations that they may not encounter in their time in the clinical setting, simply because they don't occur. It also gives them a safe place so that it's controlled.”
The U of R’s nursing programs require 100 hours of clinical experience. Students can opt to utilize a maximum of 25 hours in the VR hub.
In the six-simulators, Evans said nurses in training can talk to patients, manipulate some equipment, simulate procedures, and more.
The VR hub was designed in collaboration with Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the U of R facility management.
“We went over and learned from them, learned about some of the things that perhaps we could improve on or change. And that's how we came to figure out what would work best for us,” said Evans.
The hub will initially be open only to nursing students, as the university currently doesn't have the capacity for broader use.
The province provided $250,000 toward the hub, as nurses stated VR would improve their ability.
“This was something that was asked for by the nurses to have that ability to teach their students this, and we're happy to partner with them on it,” said Travis Keisig, MLA for Last Mountain-Touchwood.
Evans is hopeful students will see the hub as equivalent to or comparable to their clinical experience.
“We want it to make them feel that they're ready to deal with those kinds of situations that they'll encounter in the real world.”
