The University of West Florida is Bridging the Gap Between Knowledge and Practice with UbiSim

Benefits of UbiSim VR Simulation

• Supports development of critical thinking and clinical judgment
• Aligns with AACN Essentials: Core Competencies
• Engages today’s students with interactive, immersive learning
• Complements manikins and other learning resources 
• Prepares students for the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) and safe clinical practice

The Challenges 

‍Limited clinical sites for nursing students

“We have explosive growth and limited space. And here in Florida, the hospitals are now limiting the number of students for clinicals,” said Dr. Jill Van Der Like, Director of the Nursing Skills & Simulation Learning Center and Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice. She recalled wondering, "OK, what am I going to do with the other half of my clinical group?" 

There is a knowledge-practice gap between classroom learning and clinical practice

“We have a set curriculum for our pre-licensure BSN program. But there is a gap between the didactic portion and the clinical practice portion,” said Dr.Tina Barbour-Taylor, a professor of multiple nursing courses.  

Today’s students have shorter attention spans 

“Honestly, it's a different group of students out there right now. They have very short attention spans. They're used to YouTube and Tiktok,” said Barbour-Taylor.

It takes practice to develop the AACN Core Competencies of professional nursing

“Our students need to be able to manage time and they also need to be able to think and move quickly. We kind of lost our social skills there for a minute with the pandemic. We're still coming back from that with communication skills, and that was already the number one cause of errors,” said Van Der Like. 

The Solutions

VR simulation keeps students engaged‍

“Over the last few years, we've realized as instructors that you can't just give students these big books and expect them to process the information. They have to have something a little more action-oriented. If they only have an eight-minute attention span, you can't stand there and lecture for 3 hours. And if we do, they're not going to hear anything,” said Van Der Like.

So why would a simulation lab invest in VR training when they already have manikins?

“I think using all modalities helps. I don't think any one is perfect alone, but I think if we use them together, it's magic. And it really helps these students,” said Barbour-Taylor. 

“The manikin simulations are more tactile so they can actually see the flow return when they start an IV, or they actually have to push a medication themselves. So it makes it more realistic,” said Barbour-Taylor. “However, you can only voice the manikin so well. And when you listen to breath sounds or heart sounds, you can still hear the machines within the manikin itself.” 

“I love UbiSim. I think it's an amazing product."- Dr. Tina Barbour-Taylor 

‍VR simulation bridges the gap to clinical practice 

Students are fully engaged inside the immersive UbiSim environment, according to Barbour-Taylor. “The students really feel like they're in the environment where the patient is. I even had a student yesterday who was trying to bump the med cart with her hip to close the drawer. And I got so tickled by that! It really felt real for her.”

“The positive side to the pandemic was it brought attention to just how powerful simulation learning is. We want the students to make mistakes here in the simulation lab, not with a real patient,” said Van Der Like. 

Van Der Like added that gaining experience with diverse populations is also an important benefit of UbiSim. “I think a good thing about the VR sims is that the students are going to get to see culturally diverse patients and they're going to get to see different disciplines working together. You don't always get that in the clinical setting,” she said. 

“If it feels real for me, it's going to feel real for the students.” - Dr. Jill Van Der Like

VR simulation supports the development of the AACN Core Competencies of professional nursing

“Students can understand the theory and the concepts but they can't just put it into practice. It takes a while for them to develop that. I think that's why I like simulation so much. It allows us the time to actually apply what we learn in class,” said Barbour-Taylor. “It’s fun and it helps with communication and teamwork, which is great because in healthcare you're always working as a team and learning to communicate with other people.”

“It builds their confidence when they go into the clinical realm to be able to say, ‘OK, so this is what I learned in the classroom, this is what I learned in simulation, now I can see how I would use that in clinical,’” she added. “For me, it's huge to see the light bulb go off for students.” 

Editing UbiSim Scenarios & Sharing with the Community 

UbiSim scenarios are designed and can be customized to meet specific learning objectives. Nurse educators from institutions can edit, remix, and shareUbiSim scenarios with the Community Sharing feature. With so many parameters that can be changed, educators can tweak and re-make scenarios to accommodate the complexities of nursing in the real world.  

“A manikin is not going to always respond the way that we, as instructors, would want it to respond because there are only certain parameters that we can program,” explained Barbour-Taylor. “UbiSim’s very flexible that way. We can actually go in and tweak a lot of things within a scenario to make it work for us and for what we're trying to teach. We borrowed one from another school in the Community and we tweaked it for congestive heart failure because that's huge in our area.”

“We also programmed the Diabetes scenario to put an empty medication bottle on the table. So, now the students have to figure out, ‘oh,  my patient's blood glucose is so low because she took a whole bottle of pills.’ It helps them to learn that situational awareness.”  

‍About UbiSim VR

UbiSim’s robust, immersive VR simulations help learners develop the clinical judgment to succeed on the Next Gen NCLEX and be prepared for the complexities of clinical practice. UbiSim reduces cost, time, and logistical challenges, while consistently providing highly impactful, standardized clinical training that rivals the effectiveness of traditional clinical placements.

Request a demo today!