The Mental Health Practitioner VR Experience

Practice speaking to a patient with acute anxiety and depression

This training experience, created in collaboration with Bodyswaps – an innovator in educational virtual reality - is a new, immersive training tool for students in Nursing and related health and social welfare programs, such as Social Work, Counseling, and Psychotherapy.

The experience, prepared with the help of subject experts, recreates a realistic interaction between a Community Mental Health Nurse and Susan, a patient with severe clinical depression. Users will receive immediate feedback on their interactions with the patient, then they will swap bodies and watch a playback of the encounter from the patient’s point of view.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop appropriate and confident mental health patient care behavior
• Practice individualized therapeutic interaction techniques in communicating with diverse patients
• Develop an understanding of mental health and mental illness concepts in the delivery of therapeutic techniques with different types of clients and environments
• Practice and develop soft skills, especially interpersonal communication skills 
• Build self-confidence 
• Build empathy skills
• Practice adapting to a particular patient's situation
• Develop self-awareness