The Primary Care Innovation Centre December Edition:

“Virtual Reality becomes an Actual Reality!”

By Liz Leggott, Project Manager

ASPiH Conference 7^th & 8^th November

The Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) conference brought together people from all over to talk about what they had been working on and to share their experiences.  Keynote speakers from Australia and America really brought the scale of this Association and practice of simulated learning to mind.  http://www.aspihconference.co.uk/

I had the opportunity to speak to lecturers from the University of the West Coast of Scotland about their simulated nurse placement and Stafford University about their shiny new simulated learning centre.  I still hadn’t found anyone doing quite the same project as the Primary Care Innovation Centre, but snippets of similarity came out that I felt validated this work and cemented the thoughts that this IS the right thing to do, and we ARE going in the right direction!  Also, as a Greener NHS Champion I was really impressed that in order to keep their carbon footprint reduced, they only served vegan food and the keynote speakers presented from their homes rather than being flown in!

One speaker in particular talked about the use of VR and a simulated patient scenario just like Oxford Medical Simulation, used in the delivery of training and was used as a measure of the knowledge gained from that training; very much like we have done with our Clinical Decision Making and Asthma sessions.  This again validates the work we’re doing and makes me believe more than ever, we have to do this.

One speech had everyone in silence; in quiet contemplation about what Steven Sharrock had to say about his personal experience with PTSD, how Trauma Informed Care training was vitally important and how the effects of simulated training on learners had to be carefully considered as it could have dramatic, negative impacts on those involved.

Avatars and Meta-Humans

We can add the use of avatars to the 360VR; this may enhance the user’s experience by enabling them to virtually be in the space.  We can add other pre-programmed avatars to be patients and other staff along with noise, chatter, distracting sensory disruptions to better simulate the busy environment, thus preparing the user for the real environment.

The next sessions you can register to be involved in are the BodySwaps sessions. These are not clinical and so can be opened up to anyone!  I would encourage you to have a look, be involved and just see how we can improve what we do. I look forward to seeing you there!

There’s a lot of information here again dear reader in my blog, there’s so much to tell!

As always, if anyone would like any more information about anything we’re doing, you can always contact me directly.

Help yourself to the rest of the pre-published blogs to read too!

Thanks for choosing to read this!  It’s always appreciated.

Liz