On the fourth floor of a UNC-Chapel Hill classroom, a cohort of five nursing students use immersive virtual reality technology for the first time.
The students spread out and move their bodies to interact with the technology.
“So, the whole reason that we did the VR simulation was because part of the program is we do clinicals in the hospital, and I was one of the students who studied abroad in Australia,” said Angie Montalvo, a 28-year-old student.
Montalvo is a part of UNC’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. It’s for students who already have a degree but choose to get a second one in nursing. Montalvo was in the spring cohort that was the last to use this VR Pilot.
During the students’ makeup session, their professor gives them instructions on how to set up an account, followed by a tutorial. Montalvo said students have to use their eyes a lot to navigate through the VR set.
“So, in the VR, and specifically in this simulation, it really tracks like your eye movement, and so usually you would use, like a joystick or move with your hand,” she said. “But this one tracks your eyes. So, as you would turn your face, it would move to what you needed.”
The type of VR technology Montalvo and the other students are using is offered through the Oxford Medical Simulation app. It’s supposed to help bridge the gap between classroom tech and real-life experiences in the medical field.
“We had two different patient scenarios for pediatric kids,” said 23-year-old Ian Faulkner, who is also a part of the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. He explained the different scenarios students would encounter in the Oxford VR app.
“The first one was a seizure,” he said. “That kid came into an emergency department with a seizure disorder, and actively had a seizure and we really had to be a nurse in that simulation, that was probably harder because it was more of an emergency, and there were a lot of things that went into that. The second scenario involved a 5-year-old child with an allergic reaction.”
After the students complete each scenario, they are debriefed by Elizabeth Stone, a UNC associate professor of nursing, and interim associate dean of the undergraduate program division. She goes over what they learned, what was challenging, and how to navigate the technology.
They started the pilot back in October, after getting a $50,000 technology grant from Lenovo, an electronics company. So far, they have cycled through over 100 nursing students.
“We're planning to implement the same product that we were trialing this spring, and we are planning to implement that across our curriculum,” Stone said. “We don't have a detailed plan yet because we first need to figure out how we're going to implement it with multiple people to help.”
For now, only some classes at UNC will use the VR tech until enough professors are trained on how to teach it. While it is unclear when they will fully incorporate virtual reality into their curriculum, Valerie Howard, the School of Nursing Dean, said the nursing program received funding from the UNC System in June. Part of the funds are going toward the VR simulation program to cover headsets and software licensing.
“So, UNC-Chapel Hill received a little over $2.6 million,” she said. “Now, it is not just for simulation, that also will fund some faculty to expand our nursing programs as well.”
Through the expansion, they hope to increase their enrollment within their new nursing building.
“It's expected to be completed by the end of 2026,” said Howard.
As for UNC students Montalvo and Faulkner, their last day in the nursing program is Tuesday. But Faulkner said they will have another challenge ahead of them after that.
“Immediately after graduation, probably studying for my board exam, the NCLEX, and then hopefully, trying to line up a job,” he said.
