College News
Virtual reality provides medical students a greater
understanding and sense of empathy for patients
Very seldom have I
experienced all of my
senses being deprived, yet
somehow my eyes are
still open.
efore entering the Virtual Dementia Tour, you must
suit up. Goggles mimic the loss of vision caused
by macular degeneration, glaucoma or cataracts.
Gloves create a decreased range of motion and
sensitivity. Shoe inserts provide the pain of peripheral
neuropathy. Finally, a headset blasting an array of loud noises — a door
slamming, a maniacal laugh, honking horns — is placed on your head.
Now you may enter.
Fourth-year medical students on their geriatric rotations experience the
Virtual Dementia Tour thanks to a partnership between the Malcom
Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s Geriatric Research, Education
and Clinical Center, or GRECC, and the UF College of Medicine’s
department of aging and geriatric research. The sensitivity training
program, produced by Georgia-based nonprofit Second Wind Dreams,
was created to build a greater understanding of dementia and a sense of
empathy for those experiencing symptoms.
Carmen Fernandez, PsyD, associate director for education and evaluation
for the GRECC, said the Virtual Dementia Tour provides a holistic look
at the conditions many aging patients deal with daily.
“I’ve worked with dementia since the 1990s, and I thought I knew
dementia in and out. I didn’t know what I didn’t know until I
experienced the Virtual Dementia Tour,” she said. “We’re giving
students five minutes in the shoes of someone with cognitive
impairments and other conditions that can accompany dementia,
and they come out of it with a deeper understanding.”
Fourth-year medical student Gabriel Daniels said the sensory
deprivation the training creates left a great impact on him. After
entering the Virtual Dementia Tour, Daniels was given instructions
to complete a simple task or two. He couldn’t hear the instructions,
however, over the commotion
He was alone for only was
introduced into the tour,hopeless and contemplate sitting on the bed, waiting passively until
someone could help him.
“I felt slightly reassured when the other participant walked in, but then
they didn’t know what to do either, so my hopes were dashed again,” he
said. “Very seldom have I experienced all of my senses being deprived,
yet somehow my eyes are still open.”
Daniels said the experience made him reconsider the amount and quality
of care he was giving to patients on his geriatric rotation.
“I learned this is a patient population I have to plan to give more time
to,” he said. “I have to assume they need me to repeat things. I can’t just
take a nod or a ‘yes’ to assume my patient understood me. I can imagine a
person with dementia or hearing loss nodding just from the fatigue of not
being able to understand what’s being said.”
Daniels said the Virtual Dementia Tour provided a window into a world
that his coursework could not.
“To be immersed in the experiences of someone’s trials and tribulations
is much different than reading about it,” he said.
I
— FOURTH-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENT
GABRIEL DANIELS
x
t
motion being pumped into his headphones.
60 seconds before a second participant was
ur, but that was enough time for him to feel
are
W I N T E R 2019 | 33