Advancing Healthcare Education Through Innovation
Aspirus and NTC Collaborate to Improve Health care Education
1/8/2025
Aspirus and North
Central Technical College (NTC) are working together to bring immersive reality
technology into healthcare education. This partnership is giving students a
chance to experience clinical scenarios like never before, helping them feel
more prepared for real-world challenges.
NTC’s new Simulation
Center features an immersive room funded by the Health 4.0 grant. “With
immersive reality, we can create scenarios students might not encounter during
traditional training,” said Reed Champagne, NTC’s Manager of Education
Technology. “We change the room’s background, add sounds, and even smells to
mimic real clinical settings. It gives students a much deeper understanding
than they would get from just sitting in a classroom.”
Aspirus employees,
like nursing student Aspen Gunnlaugsson, are already seeing the benefits. “The
realistic structure is so like clinical settings. It’s helped me feel more
confident in my skills and ready for patient care,” Aspen shared. She also
noted that the immersive technology made it easier to refresh her knowledge
after taking time off, which prepared her for clinical rotations.
The immersive room
also allows students to tackle complex scenarios that they might not experience
during their training. “We can’t guarantee students will see every type of case
in real life, but this technology helps fill those gaps,” Champagne explained.
He added that by integrating sounds, visuals, and even smells, students are
better prepared to respond effectively to various situations when they enter
the workforce.
This collaboration
helps strengthen the community by ensuring future healthcare professionals are
better trained to deliver high-quality care. Students gain more hands-on
experience, which ultimately improves patient outcomes and ensures that local
healthcare providers are ready to meet the needs of an ever-changing
population. This partnership between Aspirus and NTC demonstrates the power of
combining innovation with education to support both students and the
communities they will serve.
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