Team Name
CareVR
Timeline
Fall 2023 – Spring 2024
Students
- Shane Purdy
- Gabriel Majors
- Justin Fellows
- Alejandro Ojeda-Celis
- Isaac Valdez
Sponsor
Shawn Gieser (Professor)
Jennifer Lynn Roye (Nursing Department)
Abstract
The VR simulation is comprised of a tutorial and four scenarios. In scenario 1 the patient is in a hospital room where the nursing student will be introduced to the patient and his condition. By using the text-based dialogue options, the nurse will assess the situation and make decisions on how to proceed caring for the patient. In scenario 2, the nurse will visit the patient’s home and meet his wife. The objective
of scenario 2 is for the nurse to identify potential hazards for the patient before he is released into at
home hospice care. The nursing student will be scored on how many hazards they found during their
visit. In scenario 3, the patient is now at home and it is the nurse’s job to follow up and perform some
tests. The Glasgow-Coma Scale and the focused assessment of the patient will be required. It will also
be important for the nursing student to understand and implement the correct order in which the tests
should be administered. In scenario 4, the patient has died and the nurse is required to perform any
final tests and comfort the family. The nurse will also be responsible for moving the body out of the
house.
Background
The Care VR team’s VR Nursing system aims to give the nursing program at the University of Texas at Arlington a new tool usable to teach students about end-of-life care in a way that provides practical experience rather than the traditional classroom environment’s experience. This is vital because nursing students will be better equipped with the skills, expertise, and emotional support needed for hospice care through practical experience than what the typical classroom education would give them. Additionally, this project will enhance the reputation of the University of Texas at Arlington’s nursing program and the experience of the hospice patient by improving the quality of care given by healthcare professionals graduating from UTA. The system will be integrated into the nursing curriculum to supplement traditional simulation and clinical practice. The end-goal is to improve the quality of palliative care from healthcare professionals.
Project Requirements
The top ten Project Requirements include the following:
Tutorial: The simulation will provide a tutorial that allows the user to practice using the Meta Quest 2 VR con-trollers. The tutorial should teach the user to pick up objects, interact with NPCs, move around in the environment and teach the user to use the pause menu. It should also teach the user how certain objects work for example: using the grab button on the computer monitor in scenario 1 changes what is displayed on the monitor.
Scenario 1: The user meets the patient, Benny Russell, for the first time. This scenario takes place in Benny’s hospital room. The user should perform a verbal assessment with Benny including the pain scale and using the pain level Benny gives the user, the user should be able to call the doctor and obtain directions on what medication to use. The user will also administer the medication to Benny via an IV and ensure his safety.
Scenario 2: The user visits Benny’s home while Benny is still in the hospital. The reason for this visit is to determine if the environment is safe for Benny to receive hospice care at his home. At the house, the user will meet Benny’s wife and examine the house to determine how safe the environment is for Benny. After walking through the house, the user will speak to Benny’s wife and give her the status of the environment. Once the user leaves, they will be shown a report with all possible safety hazards to show the user what they missed.
Scenario 3: The user visits Benny at his home to do assessments. Benny is showing signs of impending death. The user is going to perform a pain assessment, take his temperature and blood pressure, and perform suction. The user will also perform a Glasgow-Coma Scale test and relay the results of the examination to his wife.
Scenario 4: The user goes to Benny’s house after he has passed away. The user will perform post-mortem care and move the body away from the house. The user will also comfort Benny’s wife.
Pause Menu: The simulation will have a pause menu that can be accessed at any time during any scenario or tutorial. The pause menu will include a clock that accurately displays the time in the real world. In the pause menu, there are also buttons to view controls and exit the scene. There will also be a button to view extra information that pertains to the specific scenario. For example: in scenario 1, the SBAR for the
patient will be displayed in this extra information part of the pause menu.
Main Menu: The simulation will start at the main menu and contain several scenarios the user wishes to play through in the form of option tabs. The main menu will also have an options tab for a tutorial so the user can gain familiarity with the controls. In total, the main menu will contain five buttons: Tutorial, Scenario 1, Scenario 2, Scenario 3, and Scenario 4.
Dialogue Options: The user will speak to the patient, a doctor, and the patient’s wife using text based choices. In order to advance in the scenarios, the user must choose the correct choice out of various possible dialogue options. When the user chooses an incorrect option, there will be an audible cue so the user understands they chose the wrong option.
Results Screen: After each scenario, the results will be displayed before going back to the main menu or the next scenario. On the display, the number of wrong interactions will be displayed and tallied to give the user an in-depth report on how the user performed during the scenario.
IV Administration: The simulation will have an IV on the patient that can be interacted with. The user will be able to administer medication via the IV by injecting the medication into the IV. This will be done in scenario 1.
System Overview
The VR Palliative Care Simulation consists of three sections (layers): “Managers,” “Game Objects,” and “Data Objects.” The managers layer controls how the game operates. The Game Objects layer displays the types of game objects that will be used in the game. The Data Objects layer shows how the data will
be collected and stored. Each layer interacts with each other by sending messages/using each other to
run the game.
Results
The team resolved several implementation errors by implementing bug fixes and improvements, found a list of implementations and bugs that need to be added or fixed by future teams through running a round of user testing on Scenarios 1 and 2 along with the Tutorial over the course of a week with various Nursing School students and faculty as the testers, and began work on Scenario 4 of the simulation
Future Work
Future work for future teams include the following:
Resolve/Detect Bugs– Resolving the current list of bugs and detecting more bugs currently undetected in the simulation.
Complete Scenarios 3 and 4 – The future teams should complete Scenarios 3 and 4, implementing user interaction in Scenario 3 and finishing the foundation of Scenario 4.
User Testing on Scenarios 3 and 4 – Run user testing on Scenarios 3 and 4 of the simulation once they are completed using Nursing School students and faculty.
Patient Diversity – Support a change in race, gender, and financial status. When changing the financial status, the tools and house should change to reflect the patient’s financial status.
Project Files
Project Charter (link)
System Requirements Specification (link)
Architectural Design Specification (link)
Detailed Design Specification (link)
Poster (link)
References
- Ilana Dubovi and Michal Itzhaki. Playing the role of a nurse in a virtual reality simulation: A safe environment for emotion management. Nurse Educator, 48(1):13–18, 2023.
- Lindsey Hendrix. Using virtual reality to bridge gaps in nursing – vital record. https://vitalrecord.tamhsc.edu/using-virtual-reality-to-bridge-gaps-in-nursing/, 2022.
- Sook Kyoung Park and Hyuk Joon Kim. Development and evaluation of virtual reality-based simulation content for nursing students regarding emergency triage. Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing, 30(2):292–301, 2023.
- Géraldine Perriguey. Student emotions in virtual reality: The concept of psychopedagogy by design. In Immersive education: Designing for learning, pages 51–69. Springer, 2023.
- Luis Iván Mayor Silva, Raquel Caballero de la Calle, Miguel Angel Cuevas-Budhart, José Oliver Martin Martin, José María Blanco Rodriguez, and Mercedes Gómez del Pulgar García Madrid. Development of communication skills through virtual reality on nursing school students: Clinical trial. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 41(1):24–30, 2023.
