This is one of the 360° video scenes in the Turku University of Applied Sciences’ virtual, interactive recovery room simulation. All the videos contain different phases, symptoms and statuses of patient care, that the nursing student has to interpret when practising perioperative care.
In this case, the 360° videos are built around a patient recovering from an appendectomy, but they can be applied to any learning situation. The recovery room case is just a practising tool to develop further the 360ViSi Editor constructed by Turku UAS staff as a part of the 360ViSi project.
Benefits of virtual simulation
Unlike a face-to-face simulation, a virtual one has numerous benefits. It allows the student to practice in real-like surroundings regardless of the time, place and schedules of other students and staff members. One part of the learning experience is to answer situation-related quizzes and to react to a patient’s symptoms. Answers and reactions gather data that enables giving individual and immediate feedback to the student.
Testing – a vital part of developing
At one of the Turku UAS’ meeting rooms, the nursing teachers tested the editor for the first time. As the Editor is still in the making, the task was seen as a bit complex. Working with an unfinished product may take the tester’s attention to technical challenges at the expense of content and fluency of the simulation.
To smoothen the path, the developers’ representative, who also happens to be the actor representing the patient in the videos, and the nursing teachers, who have written the simulation case, took the chance to meet face-to-face.
The goal is to make the 360ViSi Editor user interface so simple, that any teacher with just very basic IT-skills and some 360° videos, would be able to use it to create a 360-simulation. To develop the 360ViSi Editor further, a change of perspective is needed.
They will go through the simulation, create quizzes and check that the linking between videos tasks is logical. Next, the nursing teachers get to step into a student’s shoes and think of the simulation experience from their point of view. Progress needs feedback and ideas, and that is what the teachers are skilled at.
