This text is part of the special Higher Education notebook
The Center of Expertise in Health Simulation (EXeSS) of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Montreal (UdeM) announced the inauguration of two innovative projects last December. The palliative care simulation room as well as the virtual reality and artificial intelligence (AI) incubator aim to support the process of continuous improvement of the faculty’s programs and teaching methods.
Nursing students at UdeM will be able to benefit from two new projects using emerging technologies. The simulated palliative care room as well as the virtual reality and AI incubator were born from a desire to support future health professionals so that they are better equipped and better trained for specific contexts.
Improve the learning experience
The new versatile environment of the EXeSS Center is used to set up simulation activities to reproduce a situation that a nurse could face. Technology improves the learning experience, in particular thanks to artificial intelligence, which brings possibilities, explains Patrick Lavoie, professor in the Faculty of Nursing at UdeM.
The educational approach used is also based on research carried out within the faculty itself, explains Haj Mohammed Abbad, director of the EXeSS Center and the clinic-school.
From communicating with the patient to evaluating a wound, the simulated situations vary in complexity depending on the year of study and the student’s path. In these simulated environments, the learner interacts with robots or actors from the Union of Artists, exposing them to various types of situations in a safe context. This allows you to better prepare him and reassure him in order to increase his feeling of confidence. By being exposed to a situation beforehand, he will be able to better deal with it in reality. When a critical situation occurs during an internship, the learner is placed in a more observational position, maintains the director of the EXeSS Center. In this controlled space that is the simulation, he becomes the main actor, “without his actions having serious consequences”, he specifies.
This innovative approach also allows standardization of the situations experienced by students during their course. “We cannot guarantee a student on an internship that he will have a cesarean delivery […], cardiorespiratory arrest or neurological trauma,” underlines Haj Mohammed Abbad. The simulation ensures, for its part, that it reproduces difficult situations likely to occur in real conditions.
Closer to societal needs
The Faculty thus wishes to train health professionals whose skills correspond to the needs of Quebec society, explains Sylvie Gendron, Vice-Dean of Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Nursing. She also specifies that Quebec being a society with an aging population, medical assistance in dying as well as palliative and end-of-life care are becoming “fairly priority” subjects.
The innovation and avant-garde demonstrated by the faculty as well as the EXeSS Center demonstrate a desire to meet the needs of an evolving population. Patrick Lavoie recalls that simulation has been integrated into nursing training since the early 2000s, and specifies that it has always “been very close to practice”. “What is new is the use of very sophisticated mannequins, patient robots and even artificial intelligence.” The Faculty also has a virtual training clinic using AI, including avatars questioning the learner, as well as a school clinic.
The virtual reality and artificial intelligence incubator also aims to meet the health needs of the population through the establishment of a creative environment. This allows collaboration with other players in the field, argues Haj Mohammed Abbad. The clinic is also adjacent to the incubator, but also to the palliative care unit. This proximity provides the opportunity to test innovations resulting from the incubator: “AI is omnipresent and we want to put it at the service of learning and the health of the population”.
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