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The (virtual) reality of healthcare education

25 November 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Bennie Botha brings another element of teaching to the classroom for future healthcare professionals. Here, he facilitates a session with students from the School of Nursing.

These days we are surrounded by technology. Interactive whiteboards, 3-D printers, smartphones, laptops, e-books, and virtual reality (VR).

VR was previously associated with the gaming industry, but today it has many uses, including the healthcare industry and more specifically, the field of nursing.

A staff member in the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State (UFS), Bennie Botha, explains that he always had a fascination with VR. With VR being more affordable to the general user and with him working in the School of Nursing, he wanted to make a difference by providing a more financially sustainable way for students to integrate theory and practical work.

It was then that Botha, in collaboration with staff from the Department of Computer Science and Informatics and the School of Nursing, developed a virtual environment to train Nursing students as part of his master’s thesis. The title of his dissertation is: Measuring the usability and user experience of virtual reality as a teaching and learning method for nursing students. His supervisor, Dr Lizette de Wet of the Department of Computer Science and Informatics, said the cooperation between two disciplines is important. “This research can make a big contribution towards teaching and learning,” she said.

Adding to existing technology-rich environment

This simulation in a computer-generated environment adds another element to teaching. Instead of only listening to a lecturer, students are immersed in a relevant teaching scenario and are able to interact within a 3D medical institution, treating and taking care of 3D patients.

The UFS School of Nursing has implemented this first for South Africa, using VR as an instrument to train nursing students. Currently, third-year students and postgraduate Paediatrics students are exposed to this way of training.

This new invention for the School of Nursing adds to the already existing technology-rich environment of the Clinical Simulation Unit within the school; a facility where healthcare students are exposed to training in a safe environment without harming the patient, using high-fidelity patient manikins.

Cost-effective simulation platform

According to Botha, VR provides a cost-effective simulation platform that can be used to augment high-fidelity simulations. “It is also a low-cost alternative for institutions that do not have the capital to implement high-fidelity simulations. By implementing new innovative teaching methods, we aim to provide quality healthcare professionals who can showcase the educational excellence of the School of Nursing at the UFS,” says Botha.

Rector content

Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, visited the School of Nursing and engaged in the simulator-based game.
(Photo: Supplied)

He explains the process: “Virtual reality provides students with an opportunity to learn by engaging in a simulator-based game. The virtual environment requires the students to perform a respiratory foreign-body object simulation scenario. Before each virtual simulation session, students are briefed and given the relevant outcomes of the scenario. Students also receive a quick tutorial on the use of the controllers and the head-mounted display.”

“Once a session is complete, a debriefing session is held where students can reflect on the outcome of the simulation. They can view a recording of their own actions for self-reflection afterwards.”

Botha believes the VR environment he created for Nursing students contributes to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, giving the UFS a competitive edge in new developments and the use of innovative teaching and learning technology.

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
21 October 2005

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