Week 5 - Games, Simulations and Virtual Environments

This week I took a quick look at two gaming resources that have the potential to promote learning in nursing education. The first site is a virtual environment where learners use avatars to complete medical care, and the second site provides games and other interactive learning tools to engage learners.

URL: http://www.innovationinlearning.com/products.html

Innovation in Learning, Inc. is a company that offers 3-D virtual environments for healthcare practitioners to practice technical skills and develop decision-making skills through virtual simulation. CliniSpace™ is a web-based interactive virtual environment for medical training and conferencing. CliniSpace™ virtual environments are outfitted with typical hospital equipment for use during multi-user case based virtual scenarios. In addition, the company developed DynaPatients™, which are avatar patients used in CliniSpace™ activities, or available through licensing for use in other virtual environments.

CliniSpace™ and DynaPatients™ provide a virtual environment that simulates real-world patient encounters. CliniSpace™ contains all the physical characteristics and equipment of the real world. Each learner creates an avatar and collaborates or interacts with other learners' avatars through voice or chat features (Stokowski, 2013).  Learners control their avatar's movements or responses through the computer keyboard or mouse. Using virtual case based scenarios, students learn how to treat a trauma patient with hypovolemic shock or a surgical patient who develops an infections and sepsis. Learning is experiential since students learn by doing procedure, making decisions, and interacting with other virtual healthcare providers.

One example of using virtual simulation in nursing education is assessing a patient with leg pain. View http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHNTicWvPik

A second example of using virtual worlds in nursing education is improving communication skills. View http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt1JfKKELP8

Reference:

Stokowski, L. A. (2013, March). A digital revolution: Games, simulation, and virtual worlds in nursing education. Medscape. Retrieved from http://medscape.com/viewarticle/780819

URL: http://www.learningnurse.com/content/view/45/57/

Games in nursing education help to impart knowledge and promote retention of information. The Learning Nurse Resource Network™ is a web site that provides games, modules, simulations and other interactive resources to engage students and enhance learning.  This site provides multiple games on a variety of topics to support student learning. Games reinforce learning anytime, anywhere, and help to increase retention of material through repetition. Another benefit of learning through games is that students control the pace of learning. If a student needs reinforcement, he/she can replay the same game or scenario as often as needed. When students are ready to advance to a higher level, they move forward on their own accord. The games on The Learning Nurse Resource Network use repetition to reinforce medical terms, anatomy and physiology, and disease states such as cardiac or gastrointestinal disorders.

The game on cranial nerves could be incorporated into an anatomy and physiology course or a unit on nervous system disorders to help students remember the sensory and motor function of the cranial nerves. Secondly, educators can setup quiz options using the games to evaluate student learning. Students can use the site to compare their scores with other students. This may encourage or challenge students to do better and improve lower scores, motivating students to work harder, review material, and retake a quiz.