In This Story
Key Takeaways:
-
The College of Public Health’s Lab for Immersive Technologies and Simulation is using virtual reality to give Master of Nutrition, Dietetics students a safe, immersive environment to practice clinical skills before ever meeting real patients.
-
George Mason’s College of Public Health’s interdisciplinary approach helps students build essential interprofessional communication and clinical readiness skills, such as reading charts and vital signs.
-
George Mason integrates advanced tools like life-like manikins, hospital equipment, and a 3D anatomy table to boost students’ confidence and help them visualize complex anatomy and patient care concepts.
The leap from textbooks to in-person patient care can be nerve-wracking, but virtual reality is transforming public health education into an immersive experience, giving students experiential learning before ever meeting a patient. For the first time, George Mason University nutrition students immersed themselves in a virtual reality patient scenario in the college’s Lab for Immersive Technology and Simulation, one of the few colleges in the nation to offer such an experience.
“Nutrition students get so many benefits out of using virtual reality to train. They are able to learn in a safe space and learn from excellent virtual reality educators. It allows for better preparation for entry into their clinical experiential learning as well as the for the workforce,” said Sapna Batheja, program director of George Mason’s graduate program in nutrition and dietetics.
Students quickly saw these benefits firsthand.
“Through the VR experience, I learned how to read and interpret a patient’s chart. I was able to apply prior knowledge of medical terminology and biomedical data from my coursework. For example, I recognized elevated blood glucose levels by interpreting the chart values. This experience deepened my excitement about connecting classroom learning to what felt like real-time patient care,” said Mariame Yangambi, MS Nutrition, Dietetics ’27, a first-year dietetics student enrolled in the NUTR 650 Nutrition Assessment.
Beyond terminology and data, virtual reality allows students to practice their interpersonal skills with patients in distressing situations. In the virtual world, nutrition students explored a scenario with a patient in a hospital room.
“VR can help me strengthen my practitioner skills and patient interactions. Having conversations with the patient allowed me to develop my critical thinking skills within the field of dietetics,” said Yangami, a first-generation student.
Because of George Mason’s interdisciplinary college and approach to public health education and practice, nutrition students benefited from walking through a patient-centered nursing scenario.
“Practicing in the hospital scenario provides our nutrition students with interprofessional skills, so they can practice communicating with nurses and other patient care specialists,” said Batheja. The post-scenario debrief, led by a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator, was tailored to the nutrition students and how what they learned will be useful in the workforce.
The Lab plans to create a nutrition-specific VR simulation in the future.
Training well-rounded practitioners
Dietetic students need advanced clinical skills by the time they graduate, and the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies collaborates with the School of Nursing to help teach these competencies with more than virtual reality.
Nutrition students practiced in the same skills lab as nursing students, using the same clinical equipment, from life‑like manikins to bedside monitors, while learning from nursing faculty how dietitians collaborate on issues like wound care, pressure injury prevention, and documentation.
“Practicing in the skills lab helped me fully envision a clinical dietitian environment. As soon as I entered the space, I shifted my mindset to that of a medical provider. It helped build comfort and familiarity within a clinical setting,” said Yangambi.
Another part of the Lab for Immersive Technology and Simulation is an Anatomage table, an advanced, interactive 3D virtual dissection and anatomy visualization system. Nutrition students were able to visualize and interact with the human body in a 3D space.
"The Anatomage table supports students who are more visual learners. It helps them to actually visualize the GI tract and get a better idea of how metabolism is working in the body,” said Batheja.