An Interprofessional Approach to Developing Faculty Training for Immersive Virtual Reality Simulation

Abstract : This formalized training program promotes faculty development while promoting core educational learning theory and simulation pedagogy. This empowers multi-college leadership and faculty to create a shared vision for using sustainable, immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation modalities. The complexity of a rapidly changing healthcare environment creates opportunities for healthcare educators to consider a vast range of clinical learning applications across multiple resources. Immersive high-fidelity simulation has long been used to replicate acute care settings, primary care, or complex home care to develop the capacities of critical thinking and clinical reasoning (Hayden et al., 2014). Now, health programs can provide psychologically safe, high-tech, immersive VR modality that engages learners to practice future client-based care while achieving optimal learner-focused outcomes (Kolcan et al., 2023). With this addition of VR, intentional faculty training is needed to effectively utilize and facilitate learning through these VR modalities to meet Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice (Watts et al., 2021). Our team employed a collaborative interprofessional approach among select health professional content experts and a dedicated instructional designer. This training scaffolds faculty development through four training modules. The first module level sets foundational simulation pedagogy, the second prepares for active learning and safety using VR, the third module supports how to integrate VR scenarios into student curricula, and the final uses reflection to refine the process and plan future development. The train-the-trainer model expands the possibility of distance learning while lowering the burden of resources required for high-fidelity simulation.