Virtual simulation used by 65% of nursing education programs, study finds
The shortage of clinical training sites for nurses is worsening by the day and healthcare organizations and hospitals keep requiring more practice-ready nurses. In this instance there is a dire need for accelerated technology adoption in nursing education and it is believed that virtual reality can really help in this regard.
The mentioned findings were revealed in a study titled “Future of Technology in Nursing Education.” The study was conducted by the National League for Nursing’s Center for Innovation in Simulation and Technology and Wolters Kluwer Health.
It was found that in the US, sixty-five percent of successful nursing education programs used virtual simulation. The report also revealed that virtual reality utilization is expected to increase from 10 percent to 45 percent in the next five years.
The study also found that regarding the need for advanced technology in the education and training of nurses, 63 percent of the 500 nursing faculty survey respondents mentioned the influence of the evolution of technology utilization in medical practice. 39 percent, on the other hand, pointed to the limited number of sites for students to learn and develop clinical skills.
The survey was released at the 2017 National League for Nursing Education Summit in San Diego. It further revealed nursing education programs to be embracing new technology at a swifter pace than general education. The mentioned conclusion was based on the adoption of technology in the broader general education market which was identified in the Horizon Report. It was then accredited to the need to solve issues related and unique to nursing education. For example, the report found that 60 percent of nursing education programs use electronic health records and 64 percent use adaptive quizzing models.
Wolters Kluwer Health Learning, Research and Practice Nursing Education Vice President and Publisher Julie Stegman said, “This survey confirms the important role nurse educators play in advancing the use of technology in the classroom through their willingness to act as early adopters and trailblazers.”
“By seeking out innovative technologies like adaptive quizzing and virtual simulation, nurse educators are helping to overcome resource challenges and pave the way for their peers in other areas of higher education to also benefit from these advances,” she added.
The report opined that the technologies utilized by nursing programs will be evolving over the next five years. It further said that many popular current technologies will also be eventually replaced by next-generation solutions in the years ahead.
The report even forecasted that the utilization of videos for skills development of nurses will be dropping from 84 percent to 56 percent during the next five years. Contrastingly, the use virtual reality was expected to jump to 45 percent from 10 percent in the next five years.
Similarly affordable technologies such as mobile apps will be rising from 41 percent to 59 percent five years from now. Complex technologies such as data analytics tools, on the other hand, will be taking relatively longer time for successful adoption and their use will be increasing from 14 percent to 34 percent in the mentioned timeframe.
Regarding this, National League for Nursing Center for Innovation in Simulation and Technology Excelsior Deputy Director Sue Forneris said, “This is yet another area where nursing education is forging its own path. Where general education is expected to focus on adaptive learning and Internet of Things technologies over the next five years, nursing programs will be implementing virtual reality and data analytics tools.”
