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Elsevier Launches VR Simulation Solution for Nursing Students

Key Takeaways

  • Elsevier launched a VR simulation platform for nursing education: Shadow Health Lab with Virtual Reality lets nursing students interact with virtual patients in safe, realistic clinical scenarios.
  • Simulations support clinical judgment and communication skills: The platform includes 165 evidence-based lab simulations, 30 VR patient encounters, and an AI-enabled conversation engine for natural-language patient interactions.
  • Shadow Health Lab with Virtual Reality can be used across a nursing curriculum to augment lab training or help replace clinical hours, with preparation, facilitation, and debriefing tools.

Elsevier has introduced Shadow Health Lab with Virtual Reality, a simulation platform that allows nursing students to interact with virtual patients and build clinical judgment skills in a safe, realistic environment.

Through 165 evidence-based lab simulations and 30 virtual reality patient encounters, learners can experience a wide range of conditions, situations and patient needs, the company said. In addition, a patented AI-enabled Shadow Health Conversation Engine "empowers students to have genuine conversations using their own words via natural language processing, helping create more realistic patient encounters and support communication and assessment skills."

Designed to be used separately or together across a full nursing curriculum, the simulations can augment lab training or help replace clinical hours, the company said, and are "supported by structured preparation, facilitation and debriefing tools to reinforce learning and promote critical thinking."

"By combining immersive VR technology with evidence-based simulations, we are enabling students to practice critical skills and develop clinical judgment in immersive ways that were not previously possible," said Brent Gordon, president of Elsevier's Global Healthcare Education, in a statement. "This is a powerful step forward in preparing practice-ready nurses and represents the evolution of clinical education."

"Shadow Health Lab with Virtual Reality is a great tool for our students because it gives them a safe, realistic way to build confidence before they enter clinical practice," commented David Tanner, MSN, RN, CPN, director of nursing programs at Guilford Technical Community College. "It helps bridge the gap between classroom learning and patient care by giving students more opportunities to strengthen clinical judgment, decision-making and communication skills in scenarios that reflect real-world nursing practice."

For more information, visit the Elsevier site.

About the Author

Rhea Kelly is editor in chief for Campus Technology, THE Journal, and Spaces4Learning. She can be reached at [email protected].

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