An Educational Technology Predicition by a Nursing (Wantabe) Geek

There are ennumerable websites today that provide significant insight into currently available virtual reality training, excellent demonstrations of the power, versatility, and distance/online capabilities. If you take the time to thoroughly explore even a handful of the available websites, it is an easy prediction that nursing education and programs regardless of size and reputation will not survive beyond the next 15-20 years without changing the direction of funding, attitudes and technology skills of faculty toward full immersion into the technology available today. The end results of the newer educational technologies have provided overwhelming evidence that investments in these technologies is minimal in relation to the benefits and outcomes of not only the abilities of healthcare professionals but to the safety and improvement of patient care (Bloom, Rawn, Salzberg, & Krummel, 2003; Cosman, Hugh, Shearer, Merrett, Biankin, & Cartmill, 2007; Felsher, Olesevich, Farres, Rosen, Fanning, Dunkin, & Marks, 2005; Gallagher, & Cates, 2004; Seymour, Gallagher, Roman, O'Brien, Bansal, Andersen, & Satava, 2002; Saied, 2005).

Bloom, M., Rawn, C., Salzberg, A., & Krummel, T. (2003) Virtual reality applied to procedural testing: the next era. Annals of Surgery, 237(3), 442-448.

Cosman, P., Hugh, T., Shearer, C., Merrett, N., Biankin, A., & Cartmill, J. (2007). Skills acquired on virtual reality laparoscopic simulators transfer into the operating room in a blinded, randomized, controlled trial. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 125, 76-81.

Felsher, J., Olesevich, M., Farres, H., Rosen, M., Fanning, A., Dunkin, B., & Marks, J. (2005). Validation of a flexible endoscopy simulator. American Journal of Surgery, 189(4), 497-500.

Gallagher, A., & Cates, C. (2004). Virtual reality training for the operating room and cardiac catheterization laboratory. Lancet, 364(9444), 1538-1540.

Saied, N. (2005). Virtual reality and medicine - from the cockpit to the operating room: are we there yet? Missouri Medicine, 102(5), 450-455.

Seymour, N., Gallagher, A., Roman, S., O'Brien, M., Bansal, V., Andersen, D., Satava, R. (2002). Virtual reality training improves operating room performance: results of a randomized, double-blinded study. Annals of Surgery, 236(4), 458-463.