Award-winning new VR program from ECU trains nurses and healthcare providers to deal with aggressive patients
One of the many difficulties that our nurses and healthcare providers often face is verbal and physical abuse from the very people they are trying to help. An award-winning new approach developed by Edith Cowan University may be available soon to train healthcare workers to de-escalate situations with aggressive members of the public, without actually putting them in harm’s way.
This is possible through IVADE, a computer program available in virtual reality or desktop computer, which puts users in a simulated hospital environment where they are confronted with an aggressive patient, complete with coarse language. The program was named winner of the Innovating Government category at the annual INCITE Awards last week. If successful, the technology may also find additional applications in retail, hospitality, and school environments.
PhD candidate Josh Johnson from ECU’s Simulation and Immersive Digital Technology Group joins us to tell us more.
