What’s Best for the Patient? Students Collaborate in Virtual Environment to Hone Soft Skills
A new virtual reality pilot program teaches students the best ways to navigate conversations about the risks and benefits of medical care.
When a patient who needs lifesaving dialysis has concerns, doctors and nurses are tasked with conversations surrounding risks, benefits and prognosis. A new virtual reality pilot program aims to teach medical professionals the soft skills they need to navigate these tough situations.
Thanks to the Bodyswaps x Meta XR Healthcare Education Grant awarded to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies, volunteer medical and nursing students will spend the next three months donning Meta Quest 3S headsets. The software places them in challenging virtual scenarios with patients facing difficult circumstances.
“The goal is to practice communication skills,” Greta Mitzova-Vladinov, DNP, APRN, CRNA, associate professor of clinical nursing and health studies and director of the DNP Nurse Anesthesia Program at UM. “How do you put a plan together and work it with the patient at the center of care? Through this program, students must focus on what is best for the patient based on their background.”
The Confidence to Communicate Effectively
Users must communicate effectively. After the interaction concludes, the program offers immediate feedback. The program intentionally unites nursing and medical students.
“One thing we found is sometimes nurses are trained to communicate one way and doctors are trained to communicate another way, and that can cause challenges,” said Mairead Moloney, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Informatics and Health Data Science at the Miller School. “If we can provide students with more confidence and skills sets going into these interactions, it is a really valuable tool and we see this as having a huge potential impact.”
During the pilot program, the student volunteers will assess the learning potential for soft-skill development and also address practical concerns like how comfortable the headsets feel and whether they note side effects like nausea from the simulations.
“It is our mission to bring in new tools and technology to bolster our student’s educational experience and help them be as clinically ready as possible,” said Dr. Moloney.
Medicals Students and Nursing Students Training Together
If the volunteers respond well to the training, both schools will look into integrating the technology into the curriculum. This technology allows for interprofessional education between medical and nursing students, eliminating the time/space barrier that often keeps the two cohorts from training together.
Gauri Agarwal, M.D., associate dean for curriculum and associate professor of medicine and medical education at the Miller School, tested the technology at a recent conference. She immediately wanted to bring it to the students.
“The conversation I had with the patient generated by AI seemed very natural, with the patient automatically responding to what I said without needing to be prompted,” Dr. Agarwal said. “After I was done, it gave me instantaneous feedback about my body position, my eye contact, the pace of my voice, the content of what I was speaking about.”
She appreciated its value in allowing students to practice difficult conversations, such as delivering bad news or dealing with someone who is angry or experiencing emotional distress.
“Our students don’t have a lot of opportunity for that,” Dr. Agarwal said. “They see actual patients with these situations, but there is not a lot of time for practice and getting feedback.”
Tags: Dr. Gauri Agarwal, Dr. Mairead Moloney, medical education, medical students, nursing, patient experience, School of Nursing and Health Studies, technology