Enhancing Tertiary Healthcare Education through 3D MUVE-Based Simulations - Teaching through Multi-User Virtual Environments - page 353

tering Support Centre (n. d.) (VSCC) in Second
Life. The VSCC is a virtual facility containing a
range of simulations to assist speech therapists,
their patients, and affiliated support groups. The
focus will initially be on a particular speech dis-
order, namely stuttering ( alalia syllabaris , also
known as stammering- alalia literalis or anarthria
literalis ) but is intended to expand in the future
to encompass the treatment and support of other
types of speech impairment.
At the outset, the VSCC will be used for self-
help and self-directed support by containing three
distinct simulations to enable those with speech
impairments to experience close-to-real-world
conditions that enable them to safely and privately
practice speech and control techniques in a loca-
tion of their own choosing and at a pace that suits
them. A number of simulations have been created,
including a job interview simulation, a simulation
involving a busy cafe with ordering capability, and
a simulation allowing users to practice engaging
in telephone conversations (Meredith, 2009). Con-
tinuing development will enable various support
groups to be hosted in Second Life and to truly
open up a world of equity, treatment, support,
and understanding to all. Speech therapists will
be encouraged to develop programs for this new
environment and to test their effectiveness. People
suffering from speech impairments will also be
surveyed to elicit feedback that will inform further
development and refinement of the facility.

in 2008 to construct an emergency room scenario
within the virtual world that could be used to
provide real-time skills to nursing students (http://
slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Bal-
larat/138/187/36) (Figure 1).
The Critical Life simulation contains six dif-
ferent scenarios, each portraying a possible
emergency room crisis. The scenarios include
various clinical diagnostic problems such as
clinical documentation, respiratory, pharmaco-
logical, electrocardiogram and family issues.
Students work in teams of three or four within
each scenario to make collaborative decisions
about the care of a patient in crisis. Student
nurses can assess the patient through a series of
questions, including interaction with the patient's
family. Decisions are team-based, with consensus
required to move forward. Text, audio, and tactile
interaction are used, and the simulation depicts
the motion of the patient, working medical ma-
chines, and an observation board. The application
can be used for training and assessment of nov-
ices, as well as acting as a practice facility for
re-skilling.
Collaborative learning and the fostering of
teamwork skills are facilitated in parallel to the
development of specialist nursing skills, through
the use of a process model whereby (Rogers,
2008, p. 828):

a) The team is faced with a clinical problem
which requires action;
b) Group discussion is encouraged as no ac-
tion can be taken in the simulation without
a unanimous decision;
c) From the group discussion a solution is
formulated;
d) Each team member must carry out the
solution decided upon by the team for the
action to take place and for the simulation
to continue;
e) Once the problem is solved, each team
member reflects (in written form) on the

Emergency Room Scenarios

In Australia, the Commonwealth Government's
report into health information management calls
for all Australian universities to take a leading
role in integrating information technology into
healthcare curricula (Commonwealth of Australia,
1997). In response to this imperative, another ex-
citing development at the University of Ballarat
involves using Second Life as a platform for emer-
gency room scenarios to train pre-service nurses
(Rogers, 2008, 2009). A project was undertaken