HKUMed MFN v26i1

Teaching With Simulation Feature Plus + The advent of new technologies coupled with the social restrictions imposed under COVID-19 have given fresh impetus to the School of Nursing’s innovations in teaching. Long before 2020, the School had introduced simulation technologies, including high-fidelity simulation teaching, immersive virtual reality (VR) and use of robots for education, to allow students to practise their clinical reasoning skills, problem-solving skills and expose them to a range of case scenarios beyond what they could encounter through bedside learning. With the pandemic, the School adapted these into the Virtual Simulation (VSim) Education Programme that was launched last April and recently won the University’s Teaching Innovation Award. The programme means students are provided seamless clinical learning opportunities even when they cannot see patients face-to-face. ‘Although simulation education cannot completely replace the value of practicum and internship practice in hospital wards, it nonetheless provides a 100 per cent safe platform for nursing students to learn nursing procedures and develop their professional skills. They can also be exposed to many more patients than they would see in wards,’ said Dr Janet Wong Yuen-ha , Director of the Bachelor of Nursing programme and Associate Professor of School of Nursing, HKUMed. ‘The important thing is that we not only have the hardware simulator, we have also developed our own software that is even more crucial to student learning, such as tailored scenarios with specific learning outcomes and structured debriefing sessions for feedback.’ Examples of that software include more than 100 clinical case scenarios such as patients with shortness of breath, heart attack and epilepsy, installed in six stimulators with pre-set vital signs and condition changes, an immersive VR developed with Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Student interacts with a robot during simulation class 30