BOISE -- We're getting an inside look at the future of nursing.
Boise State nursing students are getting hands-on experience, like they've never had before.
Nursing students at the College of Innovation and Design use high-fidelity mannequins in the simulation center to learn patient care. Faculty members are hoping virtual reality technology will help students gain even more experience before making their way to a hospital.
“We chose virtual reality as a way of coming around for this kind of solution, and we use Oculus Rift as well as creating our own custom Haptic system, which would allow students to actually reach out and touch and interact with things inside of that environment,” said Anthony Ellertson, BSU College of Innovation and Design.
Although faculty members say the mannequins are a tremendous teaching tool, Ellertson says this virtual reality technology makes it more like a game for students and gives them a new way to learn.
“What we found is that students sometimes can even be kind of competitive, both with themselves and with each other to do better each time, so we find that kind of interesting,” said Ellertson.
With 450 students in the nursing department and lots of required practice hours, faculty members believe this new technology is the way of the program's future.
“We think this going to be kind of an exciting step in making a variety of different simulations possible that just weren't even a year or two ago,” said Ellertson.
Ellertson says they have several other things on the horizon including working with 360 video. All of this is to ensure students get the most accurate and hands-on experience.