How schools are using AI and VR to train the next generation of nurses

Amna Nawaz:

As we have been reporting, there's real concern about the growing prevalence of A.I. and other technologies in higher education, but some schools have found benefits as well.

In the case of nursing programs, more and more are integrating immersive technologies like generative A.I. and virtual reality into their curricula.

Ali Rogin spotlights one of those for our series Rethinking College.

Ali Rogin:

It's a familiar hospital scene. The patient's heart has stopped. It's a code blue emergency, but this patient is a mannequin. And while this looks and sounds like a hospital, it's an immersive interactive lab.

Tina Scott, North Carolina Central University:

It really mirrors just what they would see in any given day in the hospital.

Ali Rogin:

Tina Scott is director of the Experiential Learning Center at North Carolina Central University.

Tina Scott:

There are scenarios, case studies that we can embed and just transform that room into any type of scenario we would want it to be.

Jazmine Locklear, Nursing Student:

You hear beeping. You may hear someone screaming. They can even simulate smells.

Ali Rogin:

North Carolina has one of the largest projected nursing shortages in the country. To help meet demand, schools like North Carolina Central University, a historically Black institution, are turning to technology.

Tina Scott:

We're able to train more students. We're able to bring more students in. In any event that we cannot get a clinical space, we can do a clinical day right here.

Ali Rogin:

NCCU does not have a hospital, which means students have faced barriers to securing clinical placements, where they would get hands-on experience in a real-world health care setting.

Jazmine Locklear:

We're competing against a lot of other nursing schools for clinical rotations.

Ali Rogin:

So immersive technology is expanding access for students like Jazmine Locklear, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Jazmine Locklear:

I grew up in a real small, Southern rural area. Access to health care isn't always the best. I wanted to be the change for our people that we needed to create.

Ali Rogin:

NCCU introduced virtual reality clinicals two years ago.

Hailey Turner, Nursing Student:

Hello. My name is Hailey. I will be the nurse working with you today.

Ali Rogin:

Students are put in virtual health care settings where they treat patients that are powered by conversational artificial intelligence.

Hailey Turner:

Can you state your name and date of birth for me?

A.I. Voice:

My name is Habib Abdelah. I was born on July 13, 1949.

Tina Scott:

He's very sensitive, so very realistic. And they go in and take care of the patient.

Hailey Turner:

Mr. Habib, are you in any pain?

A.I. Voice:

I have a headache rated around four out of 10, but I don't want any pain medication.

Ali Rogin:

First-year nursing student Haley Turner thinks this kind of practice is invaluable.

Hailey Turner:

The biggest things that I'm still getting a little nervous about is actually talking to the patient, like, knowing what to say, knowing the right questions to ask them.

Ali Rogin:

Clemson University researcher Jason Thrift says exam room nerves are common.

Jason Thrift, Clemson University:

Simply knocking on the door and walking in the first time and being able to just talk to a patient, that can be the most scary and trying thing that they do when they're first trying to understand these processes. So, putting them in V.R., that can kind of take away some of that angst.

Ali Rogin:

Jazmine Locklear had a miscommunication with one of her A.I. patients.

Jazmine Locklear:

I do have an accent sometimes, and I needed to enunciate better so that I didn't offend the patient, because she kept telling me that I was pronouncing her name wrong. And that's a very real scenario that I could experience in the hospital.

Ali Rogin:

Scott says V.R. clinicals sharpen several skills.

Tina Scott:

Critical thinking. That patient's vital signs are changing. What am I going to do? Not only that, but delegation. Now that I'm in this room taking care of this patient, all of a sudden, I'm getting a buzz from my other patient in the other room. What do I do?

Prioritization. Which patient should I go see first?

Ali Rogin:

Kimberly Johnson is in the accelerated nursing program.

Kimberly Johnson, Nursing Student:

I had four patients that were all -- well, that could have all been deemed high priority.

Ali Rogin:

Walk me through that decision-making process. How did you prioritize those four patients?

Kimberly Johnson:

So we have something called prebrief. It allows you to see the clients' vital signs. It allows you to see their diagnosis. It allows you to see medications and it also allows you to see what was done before you entered that V.R. clinical.

And so I often would just use that as my guide to say, hey, if this was already done for this client, I know that I can lower this client's priority status.

Ali Rogin:

Afterwards, students debrief with their instructors.

Tina Scott:

We're able to talk to them about their behaviors, what went well. It actually will give them a report. So they're actually able to see their gaps, those things they may need to work a little bit more on it. Also helps us tailor a better plan for them.

And, says Professor Janice Collins-McNeil, since these are simulations, there are no life and death mistakes.

Janice Collins-McNeil, North Carolina Central University:

The students are here in a safe environment where it's OK for them to make their errors, because that's a teachable moment.

Ali Rogin:

But there are drawbacks to headset training.

Jazmine Locklear:

The V.R. in particular isn't great if you have motion sickness.

Ali Rogin:

But Locklear says illness isn't an issue in the immersive interactive room, where students can experience more than 2,000 medical training scenarios with images and graphics projected onto the walls.

Johnson raced the clock to spot all the hazards in a hospital room.

A.I. Voice:

Sharps bin overflowing.

Kimberly Johnson:

When I'm walking into rooms at a hospital during clinical, these are the things that I need to be looking for.

Ali Rogin:

The technology is used to test knowledge through interactive games like "Jeopardy."

Jazmine Locklear:

A client is experiencing a nose bleed. What terminology would a nurse used when documenting this? It is epistasis.

(Cheering)

Ali Rogin:

After the introduction of immersive technologies, North Carolina Central's pass rate for the nursing licensure exam rose from 94 to 96 percent.

Professor Collins-McNeil thinks her students are more prepared than ever.

Janice Collins-McNeil:

We're seeing a level of professionalism that we had not seen this early in their education. They're much more critical in their assessments and their decision-making.

Jason Thrift:

I think that we will see V.R. become kind of a mainstay for a while.

Ali Rogin:

As nursing programs grow to meet high demand, Clemson's Jason Thrift predicts the use of virtual reality will grow too.

Jason Thrift:

It may provide an ability to do more clinical aspects, even including when they become a nurse, to help renew training for, say, CPR.

Ali Rogin:

Jazmine Locklear, for one, is eager to put her high-tech training to good use in the real world.

Jazmine Locklear:

There's something at home that we like to say about making the impact that lasts the next seven generations. As a nurse and a future family nurse practitioner, I want to make sure that we're living our healthiest lives and we're not still dealing with the health disparities that plague our communities.

Ali Rogin:

America's nursing shortage is critical, but, on this campus, America's nurses-to-be are showing strong signs.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Ali Rogin in Durham, North Carolina.