Nursing students use VR, a home-grown app, and telehealth to experience care simulations

Course: Simulation Learning at NYU Meyers College of Nursing’s Clinical Simulation Learning Center

Professor: Natalya Pasklinsky, executive director, Clinical Simulation Learning Center

NYU Meyers College of Nursing students usually gain clinical experience both through rotations in local hospitals and at NYU Meyers’ Clinical Simulation Learning Center, which is designed to mimic the hospital and outpatient environment. COVID-19 brought about the cancellation of clinical rotations—and a shift to remote instruction for simulations.

“We basically, in six days, transferred 42,000 student contact hours for off- and on-campus clinicals to be all virtual," says Pasklinsky. "It took a village,” 

Pasklinsky and her team have implemented a series of new technologies to create robust virtual simulations, and New York State has approved these to count toward undergrads’ required clinical hours. The technologies include software with voice-activated nurse avatars; virtual reality software with scenarios in which students have to accurately diagnose patients; an app that Meyers faculty had previously developed in which students act as charge nurses and allocate their unit staff to patients based on available nurses and patient needs; and of course, Zoom.

“For our psych course, we planned out a simulation using a standardized patient on Zoom. He played an anxious patient, and our students did a telehealth visit. Students got actual feedback from the standardized patient, and it gave them practice using technology to provide care, which is becoming increasingly necessary.

“Our goal is always to train our students to think critically to make the right decision for the right patient at the right time," says Pasklinsky. "That’s of utmost importance.”