Having health issues can be extremely stressful, and patients and their family members can misplace their anxiety onto the workers who are there to help. According to a recent Medgadget article, researchers at the National University of Singapore are working to prepare staff for these situations with virtual reality training. The software mimics real world situations of people becoming aggressive in a medical setting. The staff is able to address the situation in a consequence-free zone to prepare themselves for the real thing.
“Moving forward, we will see more distressed patients, and healthcare workers need to have an empathetic response while collaboratively making decisions under pressure,” said Cyrus Ho, a researcher involved in the study. “With the blended learning approach, we hope to provide more holistic learning to help future generations of healthcare workers learn the skills of managing agitation, while practicing empathy and compassion.”
A video with more information can be seen here.
