FW-HTF-P: Supporting Nurse Workforce Development in Future Senior Care Facilities Using Intelligent Immersive Virtual Reality

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The growing aging population in the United States presages an increasing need for senior care nursing. This Future of Work at the Human Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) planning project will explore the future of nursing in geriatric care and how Intelligent Immersive Virtual Reality (IIVR) can be used as a training platform for nurses and other health care professionals working in senior care facilities. IIVR is a promising technology that expands and advances existing immersive VR by integrating Artificial Intelligence technologies and has the potential to provide an efficient training solution with a high retention rate at low cost. IIVR might be used in nurse training to bridge the gap between current nurse skills and future requirements. The investigators also examine how to reduce barriers to utilizing IIVR in nurse training in senior care facilities. Thus, this research supports the development of the senior care nurse workforce and explores methods to adapt transforming technologies to prepare nurses to fulfill future senior care needs and enhance the quality of future senior care services.The overarching goal of this work is to enhance future training and retention of nurses working in senior care facilities. To achieve this goal, a convergent team of professionals with expertise in IIVR, cognitive science, senior care, and data analysis and modeling will investigate: 1) Future nursing requirements in senior care facilities and the degree that IIVR has been or can be exploited (Future Work); 2) The skillset gap between current senior care nurses and future requirements and how IIVR might bridge this gap (Future Workers); and 3) An IIVR platform constructed to understand the training needs of future senior care nurses (Future Technology). Stakeholders from senior care facilities, senior care technology providers, government agencies, nursing schools, and VR solution providers will participate in multidisciplinary interviews, surveys, and roundtables. These stakeholder discussions, together with quantitative analysis (e.g., statistical analysis, text mining) and IIVR prototype development and evaluation will highlight both the potential and risks of using IIVR for training nurses working in senior care facilities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.