When students in the WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus program start classes this fall, they will be aided and assisted by the latest technology that will allow them to explore human anatomy with a view from the inside out.
Future nurses at WVU Potomac State College will be assisted in their clinical and lab studies with the use of sophisticated Virtual Reality equipment – state-of-the-art goggles that, through AI technology, allow the wearer to experience conditions, symptoms, and even assess and possibly diagnose conditions within the human body.
Think of it as an episode of the children’s program The Magic Schoolbus, only more animated and detailed.
“The VR equipment creates its own universe and its own scenarios,” said Matthew Hottle, chairman and assistant professor of nursing at Potomac State College. “It allows our students to access situations that the wearer can experience.”
In the same way gamers wear VR equipment to do everything from going on safari adventures to riding a rollercoaster, the medical software uploaded into the nursing equipment allows students to travel inside the human body, exploring the lungs, the heart, the brain, the circulatory system, the nervous system, and the digestive system. It brings students – albeit digitally - into an autopsy examination, an open heart surgery, or even bedside with a child in the ER getting fitted with a cast for a broken leg. The program helps nurses identify abnormalities and to determine what is a healthy organ and what is an organ in danger. Other programs that the software can access allow students to be “present” at surgeries and go on simulated rounds with doctors in a hospital.
The nine VR units were made possible by a state grant provided to medical students at all levels inside the West Virginia University system last year. The Morgantown campus then divided the grant according to enrollment at their offspring locations. Potomac State College was then able to purchase nine of the units.
This is not the first time a generous grant has been provided to the WVU School of Nursing Keyser Campus and used for learning through virtual reality. In 2022, the school was able to obtain eight augmented reality units to be used in labs. Those units are designed specifically to collaborate with a mannequin in the lab and a simulated pregnancy and delivery scenario. While an actual physical mannequin is in the lab, the augmented reality units create situations that challenge and test students’ skills during a delivery or emergency labor procedure. The mannequin itself is also programmed to respond and react to the students’ actions.
Similarly, a male mannequin in a simulated ICU of the nursing lab contains software controlled by a computer. That mannequin speaks, opens and shuts its eyes, reacts to “pain” stimulus, and even responds to treatment from the student nurse. He can moan, cry, and occasionally snicker.
“All of this technology used in our nurses’ clinicals is to help the future health care professional interact with the actual real-life patient and to be prepared for any scenario,” Hottle said. “It allows students to access situations and learn from those experiences before being presented with them in the field and in real life. The use of these devices takes medicine into the tech age.
Hottle notes that most students are excited to use the equipment as many of them have used VR devices before – mostly for entertainment and gaming. The devices at Potomac State College simply add a more serious layer to the use.
“This is a generation of students learning from a technology they have used before and are already used to,” he said. “The augmented reality device has a physical component to it. There is something physical in the room with them, like the birthing mannequin. The virtual reality is fully immersive. The student is completely immersed in the experience inside the device.”
Virtual Reality replaces the physical world with a completely digital, immersive environment, whereas Augmented Reality overlays digital information and 3D objects onto real-world surroundings. VR typically works by strapping a display directly to one’s face. A VR headset tricks the brain into feeling as if the wearer is in an entirely new 3D space. As the body moves through this space, the VR unit responds to the physical surroundings. AR uses cameras, sensors, and computer vision to scan the immediate environment, and then software calculates the depth and dimensions of the room to “anchor” items directly onto objects in real life, like a digital Pokémon card or a condition projected onto a mannequin in a nursing lab.
Virtual reality (VR) immerses nursing students in hyper-realistic, digital clinical scenarios. It enables students to safely practice hands-on procedures, experience rare medical emergencies, and improve their clinical decision-making without risking patient safety.
Research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and highlighted by institutions like UC San Francisco Nursing shows that VR training significantly improves knowledge retention, self-efficacy, and overall readiness for clinical practice.
VR and AR units can assist in nursing education by providing several key advantages:
Risk-Free Skills Training: Students can repeatedly practice complex procedures—such as IV placement, catheter insertion, or medication administration—until they master them. They learn from their mistakes in a safe, controlled digital environment without impacting real patients.
Exposure to Rare Scenarios: VR allows students to encounter high-stakes or infrequent emergencies (like cardiac arrests or mass casualty events) that they might not get to manage during standard, real-world clinical rotations.
Enhanced Clinical Reasoning: Virtual scenarios evolve in real-time based on the learner's choices. Students practice assessing symptoms, delegating tasks to virtual assistants, and responding to changing patient vitals.
Communication and Empathy: Students can practice sensitive conversations with virtual patients (e.g., end-of-life care, dementia, or mental health crises), which helps build bedside manner and rapport.
Overcoming Faculty and Placement Shortages: VR bridges gaps caused by a lack of clinical placement sites or faculty shortages. It provides remote access to standardized, high-quality training.
Hottle noted the equipment is an accessory to other technology being used and is not a replacement for human empathy or interaction, which is still very much promoted in the training of future healthcare professionals.
“Nothing compares with interacting with an actual human and having that human experience with a patient, but the VRs create a safe spot,” he said.