PURDUE GLOBAL
Purdue Global and VR:
How a nursing school is addressing a national crisis through VR training
Purdue Global School of Nursing uses realistic clinical learning programmes in VR to produce practice-ready healthcare professionals.
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The challenge
According to Melissa Burdi, Dean and Vice President of Purdue Global School of Nursing, around 100,000 nurses left the profession between 2021 and 2023. Clearly, there was an urgent need to attract and retain talent. As national educators, Purdue Global could play a vital role in increasing the pipeline of nurses, but there was a problem: traditional nursing training wasn't designed for working adults.
Many of Purdue Global's nursing students have existing careers and families. Juggling so many obligations, they don't have the time or money to travel to specific locations to learn.
And yet traditional nursing training mostly happens in on-site clinical spaces, using physical mannequins. Lack of access to these classrooms and a shortage of teachers makes it difficult for students to gain enough hands-on experience. As a result, the number of nurses aged 30-39 entering the profession has dropped alarmingly.
The challenge for Melissa and her team was to come up with an engaging way to train new nurses and upskill existing ones by making courses accessible to people across the US who may not otherwise have the opportunity to practise nursing skills.
About the company
Purdue Global offers online and hybrid education to working adults looking to further their careers. Its School of Nursing is at the forefront of innovative medical training, using the latest immersive technologies to help advance healthcare delivery across the US.
Industry
Education
Why Meta Quest?
Why Meta Quest?
Melissa's vision was to use VR to help deliver education at scale. An early experience with a Meta Quest headset in a virtual operating room convinced her that it could be a cool way to increase accessibility.
VR has been particularly beneficial in three key areas:
- Patient safety – Students can practise high-risk skills, such as inserting a breathing tube or an IV line over and over in a safe environment. This better prepares them for real-life situations.
- Standardised learning – All students can be taught and graded the same way without bias or information gaps.
- Flexibility – Meta Quest devices can be used whenever, wherever, allowing students to fit in learning around their busy lives.
James Gilmore,
Undergraduate Student,
Purdue Global
“
Going into the VR simulation, I felt like I had just walked into a hospital room. It's just like doing the real thing with the patient.
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PCS Spark
PCS Spark provides one of the most advanced AI-driven virtual simulation platforms in healthcare education. A natural fit for Purdue Global, the platform is powered by speech recognition to deliver detailed feedback to learners, with a streamlined scoring system based on their responses to virtual patients.
Abbey Elliot,
Assistant Dean of Immersive Learning and Innovation for the School of Nursing,
Purdue Global
“
We've really enjoyed our partnership with PCS Spark because they've been able to customise the whole grading process within the virtual reality programme.
The solution
Purdue piloted VR to see if it met the needs of both undergraduate and graduate learners. In fact, the first undergraduate course was Fundamentals of Nursing, and the first graduate experience was an acute care skills lab. The possibility for students to repeat tasks in their own time, and as many times as possible, made a real difference to their confidence.
Such was the success of the pilot scheme that the university's leadership team decided to make VR headsets a core part of its nursing curriculum, focusing on entry-level students and nurse practitioners. Their VR programme is designed to replicate real-life patient encounters, with realistic hospital sights and sounds.
Students who put on a Meta Quest headset can talk to virtual patients in a variety of simulated clinical settings. For example, they can conduct head-to-toe assessments using the controllers to check blood pressure and heart rate. Other scenarios include infant wellness checks and treating a patient complaining of earache.
Alongside practical skills, students also learn vital soft skills needed to care for a diverse group of patients, including being sensitive to their religious or cultural needs.
By delivering these training sessions virtually – beyond the limitations of traditional learning centres – students can practise diagnosing cases and interacting with patients as many times as they need to, in a space that's convenient for them.
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ISV FACT FILE
Oxford Medical Simulation
Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS) drives clinical competency by combining healthcare education, training and assessment through dynamic virtual reality simulations. Using its award-winning learning platform, OMS bridges theory and practice with immersive simulation scenarios. Offering in-depth insights into clinical performance, OMS allows world-leading healthcare systems and academic institutions such as Purdue Global to scale their education, training and assessment.
Abbey Elliot,
Assistant Dean of Immersive Learning and Innovation for the School of Nursing,
Purdue Global
“
We really appreciate the partnership with Oxford Medical Simulation because they're willing to walk alongside us and find out what's important to nursing education today and planning for the future.
The results
Since Purdue began using VR in its nursing programme, it's been tracking key metrics to assess how it compares with traditional learning. Notable results have included a significant increase in confidence, as well as both practice and clinical partners reporting that Purdue graduates are better prepared for real-life situations.
- Approx. 4,000 graduate nurses supported through VR so far
- 10-15% increase in the pass rate on national exam to become a registered nurse
- End-term surveys show increased scores in "learning activities" and "relevant to career" – the two effectiveness metrics used to evaluate VR for both undergraduate and graduate courses.
As for the future, the nursing school's pioneering work is also inspiring other faculties to see how they can implement VR in their education programmes. Longer term, the course administrators hope that VR can help nurses become more fulfilled in their careers, further boosting retention.
Meg McManus,
Undergraduate Program Professor,
Purdue Global
“
The cool thing about VR is that it works for different learning styles. Incorporating these things into a physical space is really hard to do.
