image: NUS Nurses demonstrating the usage of VR equipment.
Credit: Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies
The Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Nursing), is a major host of the prestigious International Nursing Education Conference 2024, held at the Singapore Expo over four days from 27 to 30 October 2024. The occasion marks the first time this major international conference is being held in Asia and reflects NUS Nursing’s commitment to transforming nursing education through the innovative use of digital technology.
The opening ceremony of the conference, held on 28 October 2024, was graced by Guest-of-Honour, Mdm Rahayu Mahzam, Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Digital Development and Information. It had over 600 local and international leading nurse academics, students, healthcare policymakers and practitioners from over 40 countries in attendance. Widely known as NETNEP, the conference is the world’s leading nurse education conference convened by Elsevier – a global leader in scientific information and analytics – on behalf of two major international journals—Nurse Education Today (NET) and Nurse Education in Practice (NEP). Both journals are highly ranked with high impact factors in the field, with NET being the top-ranked journal in nurse education. Organised once every two years, traditionally in Australia, the United States, Canada, or Europe, the conference aims to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience of nursing, midwifery, and healthcare education worldwide.
Themed “From disruption to innovation in nursing and midwifery: Celebrating and driving outcomes through education”, the 9th edition of the conference has brought international attention to Singapore. With about 100 articles published in the prestigious NET and NEP journals in the last 10 years, NUS Nursing has gained global recognition for its contributions to nursing education and innovation, including innovative teaching methods, virtual collaboration tools and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide students with hands-on experiences and real-world scenarios.
Professor Liaw Sok Ying, Head, NUS Nursing said, “We are honoured to be a major host of this conference. This partnership with Elsevier not only reflects our dedication to enhancing nursing education but also underscores the importance of global collaboration in shaping the future of healthcare. We are committed to highlighting Singapore’s role as a hub for educational advancement in healthcare and hope to inspire the next generation of nursing leaders.”
Virtual simulation technologies which include the use of virtual reality (VR) and AI provide immersive experiential learning, enabling students to develop their clinical competencies in management of care, procedural skills, teamwork and communication skills, to provide safe and quality patient care. These virtual technologies include the following:
- The Create Real Experience And Teamwork In Virtual Environment—AI (CREATIVE-AI) platform introduces multi-user VR simulations to train nursing students in the practice of doctor-nurse communication in a 3D virtual world. With governmental and professional calls for collaborative teamwork and communication among diverse healthcare professionals, healthcare educators have increasingly sought to explore interprofessional education. By integrating an AI-powered medical doctor, the project addresses challenges in team formation between nursing and medical students. The team demonstrated that the AI doctor was as effective as a human-controlled avatar, significantly improving participants' inter-professional communication knowledge and self-efficacy.
- The Immersive Virtual Reality—Procedures (IVR-P) programme allows students to practice critical procedures like intravenous therapy, insulin injection, wound dressing, and urinary catheterisation using virtual reality. It transforms traditional clinical skills training into a 3D immersive experience, enabling students to engage with specific tasks that come with clear goals and immediate feedback. This approach offers ample opportunities for practice and refinement, allowing students to repeat procedures at their own pace and in the comfort of their own homes, free from typical time and physical constraints. As a result, students can gain increased confidence and efficacy in their clinical skills.
- The Virtual Simulation for periOperative Nursing (VISION) system features virtual lessons that immerse nursing students in an operating theatre environment through gamified learning using VR headsets and controllers. Students learn the roles and responsibilities of a scrub nurse, patient safety and infection control, key processes, and the operating room environment. The programme aims to enhance logistics management, improve clinical placements, and increase patient safety, ultimately contributing to more efficient resource allocation and seamless remote clinical practice for students.
- The Virtual Reality in Agitation Management (VRAM) programme trains nursing and medical students in managing patient agitation, incorporating realistic clinical elements, placing students in the role of a healthcare worker dealing with a patient experiencing drug-induced psychosis, complete with distractions like requests from staff and noise from a television. Students also face ethical dilemmas, such as the decision to administer medication covertly. After completing the simulation, students participate in a reflective session where they review their actions and decisions with tutor guidance, helping them understand their responses and the underlying reasoning.
- Project Polaris, a collaboration among NUS Nursing, NUS Medicine, the National University Health System, and Microsoft, integrates mixed reality into healthcare education. Leveraging Microsoft’s 3D holographic technology to enhance students’ understanding of medical procedures and anatomical structures, students engage with realistic clinical scenarios that facilitate skill improvement in a training environment. This partnership aims to cultivate specialised technological competencies and supports Holomedicine research in Singapore to improve patient care.
Prof Liaw added, “At NUS Nursing, we recognise the importance of adapting to the evolving landscape of healthcare and education. By integrating digital tools and platforms into our curriculum, we aim to create a dynamic and interactive learning environment that prepares our nursing students to excel in a global context.”
The conference featured keynote speeches from Professor Liaw and Professor Gemma Stacey, Associate Dean for Practice, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University. Along with the conference co-chairs, Professor Amanda Kenny, La Trobe University, Australia, and Editor-in-Chief of NET, and Professor Mary Sidebotham, Griffith University, Australia, and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of NEP, several nursing leaders conducted workshops and sessions on the topics of manuscript publishing strategies, innovation in action for getting work published, career development beyond busyness, creating real-world assessments, new technologies and their impact on teaching and practice, professional development and leadership, and curriculum innovation and development.
For media enquiries, please contact:
|
Gladys SIM Senior Assistant Manager, Communications Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine National University of Singapore DID: +65 9007 1322 Email: gladyssim@nus.edu.sg |
|