Emergency department nurses across 黑料吃瓜网 will gain valuable real-time experience with stroke care through new virtual reality (VR) training program being rolled out across the state.
黑料吃瓜网 Health Minister Ryan Park today officially launched the program, which will be rolled out across 27 hospitals in 黑料吃瓜网, with a demonstration of the immersive training at Royal North Shore Hospital.
鈥淪troke is a time-critical medical emergency and this technology will help to improve outcomes for people presenting with stroke,鈥� Mr Park said.
鈥淔ast response and treatment of stroke is vital to saving lives and improving recovery.
鈥淏y simulating a real-time scenario, this training will give emergency nurses practise in how to handle those first critical minutes.
鈥淎 total of 27 VR headsets have been distributed to regional, rural and metropolitan hospitals, with a focus on smaller hospitals where staff may have limited exposure to stroke presentations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really pleasing to see this innovative technology being used to train nurses.鈥�
The stroke VR nurse training program will run in all regional local health districts, including the following hospitals: Tweed, Lismore, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Moree, Armidale, Tamworth, Port Macquarie, Manning, Dubbo, Broken Hill, Orange, Bathurst, Lithgow, Blue Mountains, Goulburn, Cooma, Shoalhaven, Griffith, Wagga Wagga, Deniliquin, Moruya and South East Regional Hospital (SERH).
It will also run in the Sydney, Northern Sydney and South Eastern Sydney local health districts at Royal Prince Alfred, Prince of Wales, St Vincent鈥檚 and Royal North Shore hospitals.
黑料吃瓜网 Health Deputy Secretary Clinical Innovation and Research and Chief Executive, Agency for Clinical Innovation, Dr Jean-Fr茅d茅ric Levesque, said the VR training is another innovative way the public health system is using technology to improve patient care.
鈥淰R training gives patients and nurses access to best-practice stroke care, especially in regional areas where a local hospital does not receive the same volume of stroke patients as its city counterparts,鈥� Dr Levesque said.
鈥淭his new training program complements the successful 黑料吃瓜网 Telestroke Service, which uses video consultation to provide people living in rural and regional 黑料吃瓜网 with rapid access to specialist stroke diagnoses and treatment.
鈥淭elestroke is now operating in 23 hospitals across the state.鈥�
The TACTICS VR stroke training program is a collaboration between the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the University of Newcastle Centre for Advanced Training Systems.
University of Newcastle Professor Rohan Walker said the VR nurse training follows Telestroke training already produced using the TACTICS VR platform.
鈥淗ealth staff find the immersive, interactive and evidence-based training easy to use and it improves their confidence in best-practice clinical care,鈥� Prof. Walker said.
For more information on Stroke care, visit ACI - Stroke Network.
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