Through Virtual Reality, Students Experience a New Way to Prepare for Home Health Visits

One of the latest innovations in Jefferson’s healthcare curriculum is virtual reality. In January 2024, the Jefferson Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (JCIPE) launched a new program to teach students about person-centered, team-based care.

JCIPE offers students innovative teaching models and robust educational opportunities on evidence-based practices to help support emerging priorities in healthcare. The program collaborated with Jefferson instructional design specialists Gerald Fillman and Demi Harte of Jefferson’s Academic Commons to develop and implement an escape-room-style virtual reality (VR) home visit experience.

“This idea emerged during the pandemic when our students couldn’t visit patients’ homes,” explains Dr. Brooke Salzman, associate provost and co-director of JCIPE. “Even now, we’re still conducting many virtual visits, so we needed to develop a way for students to experience a home visit no matter the circumstances.”

JCIPE implemented the VR experience for over 750 students from 11 different health professions as part of the Health Mentors Program, where student teams partner with a community volunteer patient with at least one chronic illness.

“Students conduct a home visit with their Health Mentor in the spring semester,” Dr. Salzman says. “The VR experience helps prepare them for this visit in a fun, interactive way.”

With the contribution of several faculty members from different health professions, Dr. Salzman and her team created an escape room experience by filming a simulated home visit. In the escape room, the students meet “Ms. Krishnan,” a patient played by a hired actor who has a list of chronic health issues, including type 2 diabetes, neuropathy, hypertension and stage 3 kidney disease.

“In a 360-degree video, the students follow Ms. Krishnan around her apartment and explore her home environment,” Dr. Salzman explains. “From there, they watch a series of videos to learn more about her, her medical history and her support system.”

In the activity, the students must complete a home assessment and employ one of their educational tools, the Age-Friendly Health Systems framework, where they identify four elements of high-quality care known as the “four M’s”: What Matters, Mobility, Medication and Mentation.

“Every person is different, so aligning care with what matters to each individual is an important part of patient-centered care,” Dr. Salzman says. “Noticing positive elements of care in the home helps students understand the patient’s values, quality of life and what brings them joy. They get a holistic understanding of the patient’s health and wellness and can create a shared mental model of care with the patient at the center.”