Newswise — A Boise State University team of nursing and gaming professionals has won a national education award for developing a wearable technology that allows nursing students to practice complex simulations with significant cost savings compared to more standard training.
The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) has bestowed a WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award to the Boise State development team for their Virtual Reality Nursing Simulation with Custom Haptic System for Patient Safety. The awardees will be recognized during WCET’s 27th annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, Nov. 11-13.
The team was led by Anthony Ellertson, director and clinical associate professor of the Games, Interactive Media and Mobile program (GIMM) in conjunction with the College of Innovation and Design and the Division of Research and Economic Development. GIMM is a new undergraduate major formed under the College of Innovation and Design. Its focus is developing cutting-edge mobile and gaming technologies, including the Internet of Things, Virtual and Augmented Reality.
“Using virtual reality in education provides students with opportunities to practice necessary skills in a realistic and low risk environment,” Ellertson said. “Not only that, projects like this one provide a cost efficient solution for increasing access to medical training for nurses.”
The Virtual Reality Nursing Simulation with Custom Haptic System for Patient Safety is a new wearable technology that enables a student to see and interact with (touch, hold or grip) objects in the virtual environment, allowing for complex simulations (like catheter insertion) with significant cost savings compared to more standard training on a simulation medical manikin.
The use of medical manikins in nursing education, while reducing prep time for clinical training, is expensive. Manikins can cost up to $15,000. Many institutions do not have enough manikins to allow all nursing students to practice on them to desired levels of expertise before transferring their skills to work on a human being. Consequently, millions of patients undergo procedures performed by trainees and new medical personnel who may not have had adequate time to practice them. Insufficiently prepared personnel increase the risks, for example, to secondary infections.
In contrast, the virtual reality technology costs about $1,800 per player, and new “games” can be created in four to six months.
The simulation uses Oculus Rift and a custom haptic (manipulation through touch) system similar to popular video game technology to give nursing students practice on common medical procedures.The simulation walks students through a virtual environment and scores them on how well they complete a series of tasks, including sterilizing their environment, as well as on how quickly they complete them.
A pilot study of the system demonstrated the system’s promise, both in the subsequent accuracy of the students’ ability to perform the actual procedure and the ability to implement the technology at one-third the cost of using a medical manikin.
Ellertson, along with Suzan Kardong-Edgren, a nursing and simulation expert, were responsible for the technology’s conception and development. Ann Butt conducted field research to test the technology with students. Amod Damle, Cameron Heikkinen and Sam Blomberg also contributed to the project.
Learn more about College of Innovation and Design projects at coid.boisestate.edu.
WCET is a national leader in the practice and policy of technology enhanced learning in higher education. The non-profit brings together colleges and universities, higher education organizations and companies to collectively improve the quality and reach of e-learning programs. Since 2004, WCET has been presenting the WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award to colleges, universities and organizations that are implementing exceptionally creative, technology-based solutions to contemporary challenges in higher education. The WOW award helps WCET meet its mission of promoting innovative and effective practice by providing exemplary programs as models for the higher education community to adapt for their own students and faculty.
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