VRpatients’ New Software Update Dives Deep into Infusions and Medication
With the latest release of VRpatients’ new software update, students can get hands on infusions training, without risking the life of a real patient.
“You can give an IV to somebody with the degree of complexity that you will experience in the real world,” says Reed Kaufman, product development lead for VRpatients. “You have all of the pieces that need to function in order to make an IV work. That’s what this release is all about.”
The updates in Release 8 came about because users and in-house subject matter experts asked for them.
“In the future, we plan to have an infant as a patient, and our SMEs told us we shouldn’t have an infant without having infusions because infusions are the main way to administer medication to an infant,” Kaufman explains. “So we listened to them and began working on including infusions.”
The SMEs worked with Kaufman and the staff of about a dozen developers and artists to make sure when students are using VRpatients, every element of the simulation is physiologically realistic and from a practitioner’s standpoint, accurate.
Realistic Infusions
“Infusions are fully robust. We have IV pumps and drip sets. We have the medications and fluids. We have the concentrations on everything,” Kaufman says, adding infusions were available prior to this update, but in a very rudimentary form.
“You just pressed a button and it was done, but there is not a press a button and it is done in the real world. You have to do all sorts of things to make infusions happen and for you to be correct.”
The update also includes a calculator so students can complete the math necessary to determine dosages, timing, etc.
“It’s just a calculator, no strings attached,” Kaufman says with a laugh. “Students have to do math in the real world when they’re doing this and we’ve got to mimic reality because we have to be training accurately.”
Part of that realism is interacting with the infusion over time.
“Those IV bags are going to drain over time. The IV pumps are going to update over time. You’re going to be interacting with these things and taking bags off and putting bags on. It is now a very robust and interactive portion of the of the scenarios,” he says.
Release 8 in VRpatients allows for all of this and more.
“You can walk up to the IV stand and look at everything. Read the names of the bags on the stand and look at the rates on the IV pumps. It is as close to reality as possible and you can interact with it like you would in the real world.”
These are things nurses often have to do.
“You walk into a room and wonder what is going on. You read the patient’s charts then walk over to the IV stand to see what is happening. You’re going to be able to read and look at stuff in the simulation just like you would in the real world, which I think is absolutely fantastic,” Kaufman says.
Robust Medications Update
Release 8 also includes the third major update VRpatients has done for medications.
Kaufman says the first iteration included just giving someone a medication. The second included dosage units.
This update is robust, allowing dosage forms, concentrations, administering units, and much more.
“Now you can have a medication, place it inside a bag of saline, hang it on an IV pump, decide how much to administer, and the duration of the administration,” he explains, adding the software now allows instructors to choose how to judge their students. “Are you just looking for the fluid amount they’re administering or the quantity of medication that’s coming through, or both? The instructor can decide.”
Dosing is also an important part of this update.
The update for medications also includes:
- Grouping together medications of the same name with different dosages
- Concentrations for medications
- Administering units
- Dosage forms
- Volumes
- A new fluids category within medications
Support is Available
All of these updates might seem like a lot, but don’t worry, the people at VRpatients are always here to answer any of your questions and help you figure out how everything will impact the quality of your training. You can also get a full demo of the new features in Release 8. Whether you are an EMS Educator or a Nurse Educator, we can get you signed up today. Already in our system? Send us an email to schedule a demo or send us a question.