How URI is Overcoming Clinical Placement Challenges and Enhancing Nursing Education with UbiSim

Jessica Skaltsis, a nurse with thirty years of experience who now teaches at the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) nursing program, has seen the unique challenges the school faces in providing top-notch clinical training for its students. As a state institution, URI faces many challenges, including budget constraints, competitive clinical placements, and a growing demand for qualified instructors. Add to that large class sizes of over 600 students and the pressing need to offer immersive, hands-on training, and the situation becomes even more difficult.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, URI tried screen-based simulations, but the faculty realized they needed a more immersive and interactive solution to truly prepare students for clinical practice and the NCLEX. That’s when they turned to UbiSim, a virtual reality (VR) simulation platform that offers students an individualized, immersive experience, allowing them to practice clinical skills without the limitations of traditional methods.

By integrating UbiSim’s VR platform into their curriculum, URI addressed key challenges. With Meta Oculus headsets, students could immerse themselves in virtual patient scenarios without the constraints of taking turns or sharing roles—each student had their own virtual patient room, allowing them to fully participate in the simulation from start to finish.

Key takeaways:

• UbiSim’s VR platform gives URI students immersive, solo practice in virtual patient scenarios, enhancing clinical judgment and readiness for the NCLEX.
• With over 600 students, URI uses VR to supplement limited clinical placements, offering students experiences they might not otherwise get in real-life settings.
• UbiSim’s plug-and-play solution saves URI’s faculty time and resources, providing ready-made simulations that can be customized to fit their curriculum.

Getting solo practice as a nurse

“Each student is in their own hospital room in VR, which I like because in regular sim, we might have two students go in and practice on manikins or with task trainers and honestly, in real practice, you’re not getting another nurse to go in with you to see a pneumonia patient. You have to own every decision and every action. In UbiSim, they get to be the only nurse working with a patient and that’s good practice."

Preparing for NCLEX with clinical judgment

“The conversations students are having about what actions were important and what to do next show they’re speaking at a different level and putting things together in a way that we may not have seen or heard for a semester or two. They’re ahead of the curve after using VR because this kind of thinking mimics the NCLEX where there's more than one right answer, and they might have to choose all of them. They are having those clinical judgment conversations, so I anticipate they'll feel more prepared to take the test.”

Experiencing realism and urgency

“Students did the anaphylaxis scenario and they were so overwhelmed. It was actually good and realistic to see how anxious VR made them. Not that I want my students anxious, but they really experienced that sense of urgency they needed to react to the patient. They recognized the change in condition, and they knew they needed to do something. They were making decisions and were nervous because they knew the patient was decompensating."

Helping with clinical placements

“We have over 600 students in the clinical sequence at any time…It’s difficult to find placements, and those placements haven’t always been as robust as we’d like. We just haven’t been able to expose them to the sorts of things in the clinical setting that we wanted to. This is where we anticipate VR will help.” 

Having plug-and-play convenience

“We had to write all our own high-fidelity manikin simulations because they weren’t built and this was a huge strain on our resources.  But UbiSim came fully ready to plug and play. We could modify or tweak things to match up exactly to our curriculum, but our faculty could be off and running way sooner, saving time and resources.”

Getting detailed feedback to students 

“With UbiSim, students get a report that tells them that they completed certain actions or missed them, which is important because it's right there in black and white. They washed their hands, or they didn't; it's very clear to them.”

‍Learning in a variety of ways

“We know our students learn so many different ways and it's just nice to augment what they're doing with another completely different strategy for them to get the information.”

URI is just getting started with UbiSim, and we can’t wait to see its long-term impact on students, faculty, and the university!