The University of West Lothian allows students to experience home births using state-of-the-art virtual reality headsets. The University has integrated this advanced VR technology into its curriculum to enable students to see what it is like to handle a home birth that is in crisis.
Using the power of virtual reality, students can visualize a virtual version of the patient’s home and even pick up real-life medical equipment to deal with the procedure. Although home birth issues are ultimately a rare occurrence, VR is enabling students to gain confidence in dealing with the potential traumatic situation if it does occur.
The technology also improves students’ preparation for home births. Previous methods of learning, such as role-playing, resulted in less confidence amongst participants and limited learning due to the inability to recreate the realistic environment and the lack of real-time feedback that VR provides.
Thus, virtual reality gives additional utility to students who want to go more hands-on with more difficult procedures, and students are overwhelmingly positive about the experience. Once again, VR is showcasing its potential to become a key technology that can be used in healthcare to simulate medical practices for learning and better health outcomes.
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