WA Academy of Performing Arts students and ECU researchers have combined for a virtual reality project designed to prepare healthcare professionals for the real world.
IVADE is an immersive computer simulation program to help nurses and nursing students practise making decisions when faced with a hostile patient.
Participants can either wear virtual reality goggles or play via a desktop computer, where they are faced with an agitated patient named Derek.
They are given options on how to respond, with their choices leading to six different outcomes ranging from Derek calming down, or his anger escalating to using explicit language and becoming physically violent.
Students from the WA Academy of Performing Arts bring the virtual experience to life through use of motion capture technology.
The program won the Innovating Government category at this month’s INCITE Awards, WA’s longest-running tech awards program.
PhD candidate Josh Johnson, from ECU’s Simulation and Immersive Digital Technology Group, said IVADE used best-practice guidelines and was an effective, easily accessible tool for teaching aggression and violence de-escalation.
“IVADE combines the theory with practical demonstration,” he said.
“Being immersive through a virtual reality platform, it really is an engaging way to deliver de-escalation training.
“During trials, people were so immersed that when Derek would physically lash out, people would instinctively move to avoid the blow.
“So it really is a realistic experience and the feedback we’ve received from both working clinicians and students has been extremely positive; nine out of 10 people we showed this to suggested they would like to complete more aggression de-escalation training in virtual reality.”
Mr Johnson said the program could be easily transferred to other industries which may also involve difficult interactions with the public, such as hospitality, retail or social work.
