Virtual reality puts simulated scenarios in WSU nursing students’ hands
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- Weber State University nursing student Carsen Weyland uses virtual reality in Lampros Hall to simulate responding to a mass casualty event on July 20, 2023.
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- Weber State University nursing student Carsen Weyland uses virtual reality in Lampros Hall to simulate responding to a mass casualty event on July 20, 2023.
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- Weber State University nursing student Carsen Weyland uses virtual reality in Lampros Hall to simulate responding to a mass casualty event on July 20, 2023. At right is nursing instructor London Draper Lowe.
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- Weber State University nursing student Carsen Weyland uses virtual reality in Lampros Hall to simulate responding to a mass casualty event on July 20, 2023. At right is Tim Maw, an instructional designer at WSU.
OGDEN — The scene was nothing short of chaotic. Victims from a bus crash were lying on the road, in the grass and in a field. Helicopters were flying overhead, ambulances were rushing to the scene with sirens blaring and lights flashing. People were crying in pain and pleading for help as rain came down in buckets.
And Carsen Weyland was in the middle of it all, trying to listen to heartbeats and breathing, accessing each person as wounded, severely injured or deceased.
“It was very stressful. My adrenaline was pumping and my heart was racing. I was sweating,” he said. “You had all of these environmental sounds going on around you, yet you had to focus on these people and decide who needed immediate help and who might not make it.”
Weyland wasn’t really at a live trauma scene, but it sure seemed that way.
The Weber State University nursing student was in the classroom participating in a virtual reality mass-casualty training course. The course gives students the opportunity to triage patients and respond to the most horrific situations.
“It’s just really cool because you read about everything in the classroom, but with virtual reality, you get to experience what it’s like,” Weyland said.
Weyland also participated in a mass shooting scene.
“So in this one, you’re already at the hospital in the ambulance bay and at first you have one or two patients coming in,” he said. “But then you turn around and all of a sudden there are people all up and down the bay and you have less than a minute to see every one of them and decide where they need to go. It’s very intense, and again, very loud around you.”
The course includes virtual reality goggles and two hand-held controllers, said London Draper Lowe, professor of the Annie Taylor Dee School of Nursing. Students use the controllers to take vital signs, open an airway, stop bleeding and tag patients with various colors according to their injuries.
“So, this is really teaching them all about triage,” said Lowe, who teaches the course with colleague Valerie Gooder. “During a disaster, you’re first taught to try to do the most good for the greatest number of people. When you have the goggles on, your brain is processing this as a real situation.”
Lowe said a green tag means the person is considered to be among the “walking wounded,” yellow means they have intermediate injuries, red means severe injuries and black means they have already died.
“It’s really important for the nurses in our communities to be ready to walk up to any scene or be called to any scene, whether it be an active shooting, earthquake, vehicle accident, explosive event or any other mass-casualty scene,” Lowe said. “And it teaches them how to work with first responders and know that command system.”
Lowe said that after 9/11, the university launched a disaster course for upcoming nurses. It was the first of its kind in the state and one of the first in the nation. The university also held a live mock disaster with Corey Barton, who was a battalion chief with the Ogden City Fire Department. Although the training was useful, it came with its own challenges, Lowe said. So when virtual reality came on board, the university jumped at the chance. With the help of Tim Maw, instructional designer at WSU, the program began enrolling students this year, both online and in the classroom.
“So far, we’ve had 100% positive feedback from our students,” Lowe said. “We want our communities to know we have a lot of nurses who have received this training and they are being prepared to be ready to respond. We hope something like this never happens, but if it does, we want our nurses to be confident in knowing their skills and knowing how to help.”