Monarch Healthcare Management Innovates with VR in Nurse Training Across Minnesota

Key Takeaways: 

• Widespread VR Adoption: Leveraging VR via remote learning, Monarch Healthcare Management is standardizing education across 22 sites. 
• Positive Feedback: Using VR has garnered positive feedback from employees aged 19 to 75.
• Aligning with State Standards: The VR platform is capable of mapping to some of Minnesota's state competencies, ensuring compliance and relevance in training modules.

Goals and Implementation of UbiSim

“Our overall goals for VR implementation are to engage learners in a new way and standardize that learning. When we hop on a Zoom call, one person puts on a headset, and the other person could be across the state facilitating. They’re monitoring as the educator or nurse goes through the scenario. We could have three learners in three different sites in Minnesota. They all need the same education, and then we have one person running the training. The eventual goal is to do peer-to-peer facilitation.”

Cost-Effectiveness and Educational Consistency

“The state of Minnesota actually shared the idea of UbiSim with us. They thought it was a cool opportunity. We chose to work with the UbiSim platform because it's innovative, cost-effective, and a wonderful product that has the potential to improve standardization across an organization.”

Feedback from Nurses and Nurse Educators

“Once we get a headset going, the nurses and the team members who are training to become the lead educators are just having a blast. They've made comments like, ‘I never thought I'd get to play a video game at work.’ The team members we work with range from 19 to 75. For older individuals who have never used VR, they get caught on the wow factor of ‘this just never existed when I was taught how to do it.’”

VR for Enhanced Learning Retention & Engagement

“If you look at the research, people in a VR environment are more likely to retain information because it's engaging so many different skills versus a traditional PowerPoint lecture or even a video. We want to adapt to younger generations and educate them in a way they're comfortable. We're not going to be successful as an organization if we’re not able to engage those individuals and adapt to their learning models.”

VR Maps to State Competencies

“There are 16 state competencies and we’re able to map some of them to virtual reality. For example, we built a scenario for hyperglycemia and blood glucose monitoring. We also have one that we're building up for hypoglycemia, where we actually had the individual potentially crash and then we'd have to call the doctor or the provider.”

Use of the Intuitive Editor

“We went straight to using the Editor to create our own scenarios tailored to nursing homes. My team member Daniel helped me build them. He’s 19 and a pre-med student and is head over heels with this platform. He has it mastered.”

New Feature Requests Answered
“The support and product teams have been helpful. We actually requested a new feature, the Fowler’s position, and the UbiSim team created it for us. Within a month, it was updated in the system.”

Local College Clinical Placements

“We’ve started to connect with some of the local colleges. They’ve caught wind of what we’re doing and are excited. They want to bring their students just to try VR because we're ahead of the curve.”