Nursing students at Tacoma Community College in Tacoma, Wash., are using an online virtual reality network to diagnose and treat virtual patients in an environment that resembles an emergency department, the Tacoma News Tribune reports.
John Miller, a nursing professor at Tacoma, uses the 3-D online environment, called Second Life, to supplement his lectures and simulate certain patient conditions. Nursing students can instruct their 3-D avatars to treat the patients using real-life tools, such as:
- Oxygen hookups;
- Medication;
- Defibrillation; or
- IVs.
Miller has the patient respond realistically to the selected treatment, and the patient's vital signs are projected on the back wall of the simulated operating room. The avatars' actions are logged into a printout that Miller can review with the class after the simulation, the
News Tribune reports.
The online simulations are a less expensive alternative to costly mannequin simulators, which cost about $70,000 each, Miller said. The college has about five mannequins that students can use under faculty supervision.
Miller's work with Second Life is funded by a $10,000 grant from the Distance Learning Council of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The grant is being shared with Centralia Community College (Santos, Tacoma
News Tribune, 11/26).