Perpetual Innovation

I’m an eternal optimist, and I was so excited to share all the reasons to be hopeful about 2024. But, after spending way too much time in clinics and hospitals these past years, I’ve grown increasingly concerned.

Anyone who’s been in healthcare knows we’re facing a real crisis. We’re staring down a huge shortage of clinicians that’s only going to get worse, affecting everyone. We’re talking about a potential shortfall of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians in the United States by 2034, and by 2027, nearly 610,388 RNs are projected to leave the workforce due to stress, burnout, and retirement.

To make matters worse, nursing and medical schools are turning away tons of qualified applicants because they just don’t have the space or staff. Clinical sites are shutting down or facing other problems, making it tough for students to get the hands-on experience they need. And, of course, the pandemic just made everything worse.

With hands-on training becoming so hard to come by, simulation is stepping up as a practical alternative, not just a stopgap; but as a proven, effective way to boost nursing students’ knowledge, skills, and abilities, while improving the quality of care healthcare professionals provide. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) has done studies showing that simulation can effectively replace some clinical hours without lowering the quality of nursing education.  The evidence is clear: simulation is a powerful tool for preparing students for real-world clinical practice.

Given all this, schools are under a lot of pressure to ramp up their simulation capabilities. This is crucial to make up for the lack of clinical training sites and the shortage of clinicians. It’s essential for training students effectively and getting them into the field quickly.

But expanding simulation capacity isn’t easy. It’s expensive and complex, and even when schools have the funds, building new facilities or expanding existing ones takes years and a lot of money. And often, these new, multimillion-dollar simulation labs are already at capacity from day one.

This is where VR nursing and medical simulation is becoming a game-changer. It promises more realism, better student engagement, and lower costs. There’s a growing body of evidence backing the effectiveness of virtual simulation.

However, there are risks in how VR nursing and medical simulation is adopted. Some see it as a way to replace traditional methods, cutting down on instructors and leaning on automated apps. But this often misses out on critical elements like prebriefing, facilitation, and debriefing, which are key to successful simulation.

A lot of VR nursing and medical simulation platforms don’t have alternatives for those who aren’t comfortable with VR headsets. I think it’s essential to have screen-based options for those who want to observe or participate in simulations in other ways.

Moreover, expert simulationists and instructors are often left out of the loop when it comes to developing these VR platforms. Instead, software teams, guided by a limited number of subject matter experts, are driving the development, which can miss out on the rich, collaborative innovation that’s been a hallmark of simulation.

We’ve always thrived on a close-knit community of educators and industry experts tinkering, experimenting, and evolving training in tandem with the medical industry’s changing needs. But with VR, there’s a risk that this collaborative innovation could be lost, replaced by limited customization options and a development process that’s removed from the hands-on experience of industry professionals.

I believe it’s crucial to keep this spirit of innovation alive in simulation, even as we embrace virtual methods. The ability to customize and create simulations from scratch is vital, and we shouldn’t let it slip away into the hands of a few developers and SMEs. It’s about keeping the craft of simulation alive and kicking.

by Jon Brouchoud, CEO at Arch Virtual, Developers of Acadicus