On March 15, dozens of students, faculty and staff members were transported from the Brodie Centre atrium to health-care environments, just by putting on virtual reality (VR) headsets.
The event was the launch of RadyVerse, a new initiative that is expanding the use of VR, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning options across the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.
Anyone who wanted to try the technology or learn about its capabilities was welcome.
“When you put on a VR headset, you’re immersed in a highly realistic, computer-generated 3D environment,” said Dr. Nicole Harder [BN/96, MPA/02], associate dean of undergraduate programs at the College of Nursing. “You’re able to move around in the simulated environment and converse with characters in it. By using controllers in your hands, you can perform tasks.
“A lot of people associate VR with gaming and entertainment, but it has enormous potential as an educational tool for practising skills and responding to health-care scenarios.”
The College of Nursing has been using VR in its bachelor of nursing program since Fall 2022, and other colleges have started to explore its potential. There’s a wealth of VR content on the market for health educators, which can then be adapted by the university for specific scenarios.
Harder, an associate professor of nursing, is an expert on using simulation in health education. She holds the Rady Faculty role of Mindermar Professor in Human Simulation.
Artificial intelligence in simulation is fairly new, Harder said, but advances are coming quickly.
“Right now, when we develop simulation experiences in virtual reality, we can predict the trajectory of how it will go,” she said. “But with AI, virtual patients can respond on their own, without an instructor telling them what to do or say. This will make the simulations more unpredictable and, if anything, more realistic.”
VR training platforms can bring people in different countries together virtually, said Kimberly Workum, director of digital strategies at the College of Nursing. This means the technology could be used by UM to perform clinical competency assessments of nurses outside Canada who aspire to work in Manitoba.
“A candidate could wear a VR headset in the Philippines and enter the same virtual room as assessors wearing headsets in Manitoba,” Workum said.
One VR scenario demonstrated at the RadyVerse launch was created by the Office of Interprofessional Collaboration (OIPC). It involves hospital discharge planning for a fictional patient who has been admitted with an exacerbation of their chronic lung disease.
“The patient is going home with a new prescription for home oxygen, a walker and a variety of new medications, as well as oral health concerns,” said OIPC director and assistant professor of physical therapy Moni Fricke [BMRPT/87, M.Sc./98, PhD/16].
“Who will be responsible for teaching them to use their home oxygen? Is it the respiratory therapist? The physician? The physiotherapist? The physician assistant? The nurse? These questions about role-blurring are common. By experiencing this in VR first, the learner can acquire the skills necessary for clarifying roles in the workplace.”
Lawrence Gillman [B.Sc.(Med.)/02, MD/02], associate professor of surgery and director of the Clinical Learning and Simulation Program on the Bannatyne campus, has a crisis-based simulation and trauma resuscitation program in development that he will soon use to teach surgery residents.
Gillman calls VR the future of simulation learning. “We create medical crises that people can practise in. They can make mistakes in simulation, rather than in real life.”
Sandra Biesheuvel, a respiratory therapy (RT) instructor in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, said her department plans to incorporate VR into the curriculum within the next two years.
“In RT, our students learn a lot of technical skills, but there isn’t a lot of opportunity to practise more human skills, like how to talk to patients. VR can really help with this.”
Biesheuvel was surprised by the realism of some of the VR scenarios she has tried. One involved a home oxygen client with a messy home, loud radio and a family member sitting nearby.
“It really felt like being in the client’s home.”
Biesheuvel said students can often become quite emotional when dealing with end-of-life care. Simulations allow them to work through these feelings in a safe space where they can debrief with their instructors and classmates.
Brian Milligan [B.Sc./04, MD/08], site director for UM’s family medicine residency in Neepawa, Man., sees VR as a great way to run simulation education with a lower cost and smaller physical footprint.
“The ‘old-fashioned’ way to do it is with a life-size manikin, but you need a big room and lots of expensive equipment,” he said. “The manikin itself costs over $100,000.”
He also thinks the technology would be easy for most people to learn.
“I don’t know the first thing about VR. I never played virtual reality games and I don’t have Nintendo or anything like that. But I think this is neat and quite realistic.”
The Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry and the School of Dental Hygiene are hoping to have VR programming in place sometime in 2025 to assist students in learning how to administer local anesthesia.
“Within these immersive environments, our aim is to provide a low-pressure, low-stakes setting where students can make mistakes, learn to troubleshoot, and, through repetition, gain confidence with injection techniques,” said dental hygiene instructor Kaleigh Warden [Dip.D.Hyg./09, BA(IS)/16].
Test-driving Tech
Second-year medical student Kevin Park tried out most of the technology on display at the RadyVerse launch.
One tool he tested was artificial intelligence software that allows medical learners to practise their communication skills by speaking through a microphone to a virtual character representing a patient or family member.
“I spoke to it like a patient, and it gave me responses,” Park said. “It took a little bit for it to register and respond, but I thought the responses seemed very realistic. It was pretty cool.”
Park has never used virtual reality (VR) before, but he can see it being easy to learn.
“I struggled with the headset a bit. There’s obviously a learning curve to it, but I think once you get used to it, it could be useful for sure.”
Busolami Olaide, who is starting the bachelor of nursing program this summer, dropped by the event to get a better idea of the tools she’ll be using in the program.
After trying one of the VR demonstrations, she was excited about how the technology could benefit students before they go into clinical placements.
“It will be helpful to develop communication skills in VR before seeing patients in real life, without messing up or potentially hurting anyone,” Olaide said.
BY ALAN MACKENZIE