·                 Significance

o               This pilot VR project seeks to enhance university efforts to expand knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding the social determinants of health across interprofessional teams.,

o               We seek to prepare expert clinicians and health care practitioners who can transfer knowledge of SDoH into medically underserved communities to positively impact healthcare disparities related to the SDoH, using an interprofessional approach.

o               Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

o               Given the geographic location of Sacred Heart University, we are well poised to interact with diverse communities in our region. We embrace the mission of Sacred Heart University to prepare students to be inspired to utilize their interprofessional knowledge and expertise to adopt strategies that will impact current gaps health care to our service community as well as other underserved communities within region 7 of the US.

·                 Methodology/Approach

o               We anticipate that between May 2024 and March 2025 that a total of 20 interprofessional students (Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Graduate Nursing, Undergraduate Nursing, Physician Assistant, Social Work, Speech Language Pathology) will have experienced two simulations using the SDoH in an interprofessional environment using VR hardware and virtual scenarios that involve underserved patients that appear as avatars on VR headsets through the use of a simulation platform as a component of their clinical experiences. 

               Each simulation experience will involve an interprofessional clinical case scenario, followed by an interprofessional case conference and debriefing within the online platform under the direction of the interprofessional faculty team. Faculty will be responsible to pre-brief, observe the simulation, contribute to the interprofessional team process, and lead the debriefing process from a laptop computer.

Evaluation

o               The results of this project will be evaluated using the Kirpatrick Model, using four levels of outcome criteria, as described in this project narrative.

Project Staff 

o               A member of the undergraduate faculty serves at the PI for this project. Faculty from the graduate and undergraduate programs in the school of nursing, as well as graduate faculty in the social work department, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistant program and the speech language departments will collaborate to implement this novel project. Each faculty member will participate in the pre-briefing, engage part 2 of the simulation as interprofessional team members, and contribute to the discussion of the patient’s plan. 

Personnel Qualifications 

o               Please see biographical summaries and curriculum vitae for the Principal Investigator and each participating faculty member.