USD Magazine Summer 2021

V i r t u a l r e a l i t y t o o l s f o r n u r s i n g s t u d e n t s [ c u t t i n g - e d g e ] PRACT ICAL LY REAL L I F E

Teague, who’s completing her bachelor’s degree with a jaw- dropping seven classes this spring, is already setting her sights on a new educational journey: law school. She sees it as a natural next step in her desire to protect people. Having experienced bullying when she was younger, she’s motivated to help others. “I don’t want other people to feel this way,” she says. “I want to make sure people follow the rules and no one gets hurt.” This mission is spurred on by her desire to share her own jour- ney with others, hoping to in- spire people through her accom- plishments, and more important, the challenges she saw as oppor- tunities and chances to grow, change and further explore who she is and what she can do. “Try as hard as you can,” she says. “All you can do is your best.” Sharing her story is one way Teague feels she can increase awareness for neurodiversity, ultimately helping the commu- nity understand the beauty in her experience. That starts with representation. “A lot of people with autism don’t see others with autism. You don’t hear very many neu- ro-diverse stories,” she says. “If you don’t have role models, if you don’t have representation, it gets really hard.” That’s what pushes Teague forward. In her 19 years, she’s blazed her own trail, guided by her biological maternal grand- mother who told her that every time someone told her no, she should take that as a challenge. As Teague prepares for law school, she’s already looking ahead and setting her sights on the next goal. “I want to be the first Supreme Court justice with neurodiversity. People need to see that,” she says. “If we don’t challenge what can be done, we’ll get nowhere.”

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by Julene Snyder

unique challenge has aris- en during the COVID-19 pandemic: How to find a

best thing.” Growdon liked the experience of using the new tool in one of her on-campus labs. “There was a little bit of pressure, which I liked. I also liked that I had my classmates here to give me help when I needed it.” Learning in this type of 3D environment allows students to learn and make mistakes, and re-do procedures in various scenarios, something that’s not possible in the real world. The school intends to purchase more of these units — each comprised of goggles, a controller and a laptop station — that will help students in areas that cannot be simulated in labs, such as work- ing with pediatric patients or mass casualty events.

inside the exam room,” she says. These virtual reality learning tools augment the use of “stan- dardized patients” — people recruited and trained to take on the characteristics of real patients, giving students the opportunity to learn and to be evaluated on learned skills in a simulated clinical environment. Students like Elizabeth Grow- don ‘21 (MEPN) are enthusiastic about using virtual reality sce- narios to provide a robust, inter- active learning experience. “This is more interactive,” she says. “It puts you on the spot and feels more like real life than other options that aren’t in the hospital. Training in the hospital is the gold standard, but since we can’t do that, this feels like the next

way to give nursing students train- ing in hospitals and clinics in or- der to complete clinical require- ments at a time when such facili- ties are closed to them? A 2020 Song-Brown grant of nearly $100,000 from the Califor- nia Healthcare Workforce Com- mission has allowed the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science to purchase equipment and software that does the next best thing. Clinical Associate Professor Deanna Johnston, PhD, says that virtual reality tools enhance stu- dent learning. “This program makes it more real for the stu- dents, as if they were standing

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Summe r 2021