Nursing Falls Prevention Simulator
The XR Lab has partnered with nursing education leaders at Jefferson to design and build a virtual reality (VR) prototype for falls prevention training. Falls prevention education today is abstract, testing learners through fact-based quizzes rather than testing behavior. Training is often limited to classroom lectures or desktop click-through modules, which are removed from clinical context.
Our nursing education leadership identified the need for a training tool that would equip nurses to address fall hazards in patient rooms more intuitively during clinical workflows. This prototype will provide supplemental training for new-to-practice nurses (NPNs) in a convenient, safe, and engaging way. This prototype exists as part of a larger initiative at Jefferson to reduce the risk of patient falls.
Opportunity
Falls are one of the leading causes of unintentional injury in healthcare. Fall-related injuries can extend hospital stays and increase the cost of care by an average of $7,000. The burden of preventing patient falls is placed on their nurses, who are also managing complex clinical care, medication administration, and a host of other responsibilities for multiple patients. Nurses must be able to recognize fall hazards during an average day while completing their other responsibilities, but many falls prevention strategies reach facts rather than address behaviors.
According to the literature, highly immersive and interactive training methods appear to improve learner motivation and automaticity. (Automaticity is being able to perform a task without thinking about the details — like being able to drive somewhere familiar without worrying about directions). Additionally, VR has been successfully used to augment nurse training programs throughout the country, but it has not yet been used in falls prevention training curricula. This prototype could be utilized across the Jefferson enterprise to provide supplementary training opportunities that do not exist today.
Challenges
In validating this technology, we are closely following established standards for falls prevention practices. A deep understanding of national, state, and institutional guidelines is required so that this prototype accurately reflects the conventions in the field today. Our team continues to learn from experienced clinicians, academic experts, published guidelines, and existing literature to ensure the modules’ quality and safety.
Furthermore, the measurements of success for this tool require careful problem-solving. Simulation scenarios in VR face limitations based on the current nature of motion tracking hardware. Most importantly, there are no reliable ways to track fine motor movements in VR. That means we must be creative in how we test and train clinical skills. Existing literature indicates that VR can reinforce clinical decision-making and improve situational awareness — two key factors in falls prevention. By focusing on these concepts, we hope to gain insights on automaticity, efficacy, retention, and proficiency in falls prevention practice.
Vision and Value
Our multidisciplinary team is creating an immersive training experience to simulate a clinical environment where nurses are expected to identify fall hazards. Our prototype will allow users to identify fall hazards in a virtual patient room while performing clinical tasks to build automaticity and clinical reasoning skills. At present, we have begun developing a dynamic VR scenario on the Oculus Quest, which immerses the user in a patient room. In addition to building clinical skills, research indicates that supplementing traditional learning with immersive virtual environments may improve learner motivation.
Beyond the benefits for individual learners, we believe this simulator could provide simplified coordination of training for hospital administration. Today, facilitating an in-person training simulation requires physical space and allocation of medical materials — including a hospital bed, bed alarm, IV pumps and other equipment to create a patient room — along with time commitments from multiple staff members to facilitate. A virtual simulator could provide supplemental training with equivalent educational outcomes while dramatically minimizing the resources required to facilitate this learning experience. We are committed to exploring the potential applications of this prototype for the benefit of Jefferson’s students, educators, administrators, and patients.
About the XR Lab
The XR Lab at The DICE Group is a multidisciplinary team passionate about transforming healthcare and education through immersive technology. They believe that XR should be easily accessible to everyone and that it has the potential to transform the healthcare experience.
Interested in this intersection of VR, falls prevention, and medical training? Want to support this project? Contact us anytime, ARVR@jefferson.edu. Subject: Falls.
