SDSU College of Nursing Uses UbiSim to Expand Offerings & Meet HSSOBP-Aligned Learning Objectives

We spoke with staff and faculty members about their implementation and use at SDSU: 

• Deborah Venable, MSN, BSN, RN is an Instructor 
• Kate Jansen, BS, CHSOS is a Simulation Technician

Key takeaways:

• UbiSim offers another way for students to learn, expanding offerings at SDSU College of Nursing 
• Based on INACSL HSSOBP, UbiSim aligns well with SDSU’s program learning objectives
• UbiSim fills the gaps with scenarios they are unlikely to see in clinical

VR Enables SDSU College of Nursing  to Expand Its Offerings

Deborah Venable: “VR has provided additional opportunities for the college. It’s beneficial to have another modality to meet the needs of different learning preferences.”

UbiSim Supports Program Learning Objectives 

Deborah Venable: “We’ve found that VR is a safe environment and that the UbiSim scenarios align appropriately with our undergraduate nursing program learning objectives: applying professionalism, demonstrating clinical reasoning, recognizing unique aspects of rural health, and demonstrating safe performance of technical skills.”

Pre-Made Scenarios Align with INACSL HSSOBP

Kate Jansen: “The fact that UbiSim incorporates standards of best practice into the entire platform makes it an incredibly useful tool. Having the scenarios already made according to HSSOBP, according to expert opinions, and all of those things that we would normally have to go through ourselves to create a simulation saves time and makes the experience realistic.” 

Intuitive Editor Makes it Easy to Customize Scenarios

Kate Jansen: “The customization user platform is fantastic - it balances complexity with usability well! Very intuitive and easy to customize while at the same time providing valid, premade scenarios that can be incorporated into any lesson, whether lab or simulation. 

We’ve used the Editor to tailor scenarios based on our curriculum and are excited to begin the next steps of creating our own scenarios from scratch. Once we became familiar with the software, it didn’t feel overwhelming at all to use.”

Using UbiSim for Skills Lab

Kate Jansen: “I think what we are doing a little differently is using UbiSim during our skills lab sessions to give students another unique opportunity to apply what they learned in lecture. We are an SSH-accredited simulation center with a strong simulation program, so we wanted to explore implementation by incorporating more VR into our skills lab experience."

Students are Comfortable in VR

Deborah Venable: “Students like VR and the majority of the students want to participate weekly. The more times that VR is used, the more comfortable the students get with using it. Each scenario is conducted with two students when they're in that environment, I feel that their comfort level increases since they can learn from each other throughout the scenario.  Our students understand that they are in a safe environment and that helps with the learning process of VR.”

Students Have the Opportunity to Practice Rare Scenarios

Deborah Venable: “Since we live in a smaller urban community, students have limited opportunities to experience specialized nursing. UbiSim allows students to get those less frequent experiences, which has always been the intention of simulation, but immersive VR adds a whole new level.”

UbiSim Is Relevant Across Learner Levels

Deborah Venable: “We are excited to start reviewing the implementation of VR in our make-up on-campus clinical sessions where we have students from all semesters who are at different levels in their education.VR has allowed us the opportunity to provide scenarios that support every student at an appropriate learner level. It gives us the flexibility to plan our make-up sessions according to the specific experiences that the student missed, either during simulation or clinical.”

SDSU Has Had Success With Ghost Observers

Kate Jansen: “Although motion sickness is becoming less common due to improvements in things like frame rate and transportation methods while in VR, we do have a student opt-out of wearing the headset from time to time. 

The great thing about UbiSim is that it offers a few options for those who do experience discomfort to still participate in the scenario. Students can participate in a seated position as a nurse without limitations, observe from a stationary position with a more static view as a ghost observer, or watch in real time as an observer via screencasting. It really is an all-inclusive tool that gives our facilitators tons of flexibility without the stress of complicated operating procedures.”