NSW emergency department nurses will be trained in stroke care with a virtual reality program developed at the University of Newcastle.
The program replicates an emergency situation inside a VR headset.
With stroke being a time-critical medical emergency, fast treatment is needed to save lives and improve recovery.
Professor Rohan Walker said the TACTICS VR training program simulates "real-time scenarios".
It teaches emergency nurses how to handle "those first critical minutes when a patient presents with stroke".
"Ideal training is in person with an expert. However, having an expert available at the moment you have a new staff member to train is not always possible or feasible," he said.
Professor Walker, the program director, said the advantage of virtual reality was its capacity to "recreate the in-person training context and place a mentor digitally into the headset".
The program provides real-time feedback to learners "as they navigate through highly realistic clinical workflows".
He said virtual reality was "known to create a sense of presence in a way that is unachievable with standard desktop PC delivered instruction".
This was particularly so when the program was "developed and designed by experts in learning, psychology and neuroscience".
The university's Centre for Advanced Training Systems developed the program.
Professor Walker said VR training was now "mature and highly effective" for the workplace.
"The technology, however, is only as good as the effort that goes into designing the content," he said.
"We have spent months working with experts across the country to understand and develop best practice."
NSW Health nurses collaborated with the university on the program.
So far 25 VR headsets have been distributed to regional and metropolitan hospitals, with a focus on smaller ones where staff may have limited exposure to stroke and quality training.
Professor Walker said the training program was "particularly critical in rural, regional and remote areas where there is a greater chance of less experienced staff treating stroke patients".
Project lead Dr Steven Maltby said the program required nurses to "navigate their role as a stroke patient presents to hospital" and manage workflow through various scenes.
This included preparation, patient assessment, monitoring, imaging, treatment and consent.
The training sought to emphasise the "critical importance of effective communication and team co-ordination in the first 24 hours after stroke".
