Many nursing students have had some training with the help of a mannequin. Introduced several years ago, the dummies have found their way onto nursing tables at schools and hospitals across the country. And over time, they have become more advanced. The SimMan has become more lifelike, more sophisticated, and can even give birth to a little SimBaby. But now, a small group–two nurses and a video game developer–is trying to change the way nurses train forever.  

“Gaming technology is not a new thing in training,” says Jerrod Ullah, RN, a staff nurse at Inova Fairfax (VA) Hospital for Children. “Flight simulators have been around forever. So, why isn’t it in healthcare? Why isn’t it in nursing?”

With any luck and a little funding, training software with state-of-the-art, 3-D technology will find a home in hospitals across the country within the next year or two. The software, called Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Critical Decision Simulation (CDS), was developed by Jim Omer, the president of Rival Interactive, Jill Duncan, RN, MS, MPH, a clinical nurse specialist, and Ullah.
     
The idea for the software is simple, giving nurses a chance to learn and practice their skills without endangering patients. Developing the software was a tad more complex. High quality, 3-D graphics, the group decided, would provide an important element.

“It’s amazing how 3-D graphics can explain the body,” Omer says. “We can put cameras where they can’t physically be. There’s unlimited potential.”

A prototype–of a premature infant that was designed for the NICU–has already been completed. The baby moves and shows emotion. A heartbeat and vital signs are tracked using virtual monitors. Then, suddenly, something goes wrong. A list of possible decisions and interventions appear on the screen. If a wrong choice is made, the baby may cry, its pupils may dilate or the skin tone may quickly change. If the correct choice is made, everything goes back to normal.

If something does go wrong, a reset button is all it takes to get back to the beginning. The ease of operating the program, along with the 24-hour, 7-day-a-week capabilities, are two enormous benefits, Duncan says.

“If it’s Saturday at 2 a.m. and you’re asked to do something you’ve never done, you can go to the simulator, practice it, and then go back to the patient,” she says.

“[The video training] is a good fit for training a large group,” Ullah says. “It pulls you in and you feel like you are right there. You feel like you are making the baby move. It’s pretty powerful.”

Omer agrees that his product certainly has some benefits over the mannequins. The best answer, he says, may be to use them together. Hospitals that already use mannequins on their units have been calling him and asking about the availability of the 24/7 training tool. “It’s the 1-2 punch of the training future,” Omer says.

While only a prototype has been created, there are high hopes that the training tool can be used in several different scenarios. “We definitely want to expand it, to adults, to labor deliveries,” Omer says.

No matter where the training is used, it can only lead to success and better care in the hospital, Ullah says. “[Using it], we are going to get better,” he says. “We are going to reduce infection rates and increase patient safety. It’s going to allow nurses to be confident and better.”