Collaborative Research: FW-HTF-P: The Future of Geriatric Care: Immersive Virtual Patient Training for Nursing Assistants

目前，辅助生活和养老院的工作人员短缺，COVID-19加剧了这一短缺。注册护理助理（CNAs）在为老年人提供护理方面发挥着重要作用，但培训不足、薪酬低以及对其身体和情感需求的支持不足会影响他们对老年人工作的态度，并限制他们护理的有效性。虽然公共和私人组织提供护理助理培训，但许多组织并没有特别强调对老年人口的态度如何影响护理。拟议的培训将使cna与虚拟的老年患者进行现实的互动，以促进长期护理机构或医院的卫生保健工作者之间的积极态度、观念和有效沟通。改善沟通和培养积极态度的培训对保健工作者的经验和患者的福祉都很重要。该项目将使现有和未来的工作人员有机会从事专业学习，以提高工作人员和患者的生活质量。研究人员建议对虚拟患者进行增强现实/虚拟现实（AR/VR）培训，在虚拟患者中，患者（老年人）使用屏幕或头戴式显示器上的三维图形进行数字表示。CNAs将接受采访，以确定员工的需求和工作场所的挑战。来自CNA访谈的数据将用于告知新一代的类人虚拟患者（即具有类人身体和动画的3D计算机图形模型，能够意识到周围环境和对话，并在沉浸式环境中显示），以便开发相关的沟通和态度培训。CNAs将照顾一个虚拟的老年病人，在反复的接触中模拟和实践现实生活中的互动。虚拟病人会记住谈话内容，并了解周围环境，这增加了互动与现实的相似性。研究将评估该技术的可行性和可用性，以及CNA的态度和看法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There is currently a staff shortage in assisted living and nursing homes, a shortage exacerbated by COVID-19. Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) play a significant role in providing care for older adults, but insufficient training, poor pay, and inadequate support for their physical and emotional needs can affect their attitudes toward working with older adults and limit the effectiveness of their caregiving. Although public and private organizations provide nursing assistant training, many do not specifically emphasize how attitudes towards the geriatric population can affect care. The proposed training will expose CNAs to a realistic interaction with a virtual geriatric patient in order to facilitate positive attitudes, perceptions, and effective communication among healthcare workers in long-term care settings or hospitals. Training that improves communication and fosters positive attitudes is important to both the experience of healthcare workers and the well-being of patients. This project will enable existing and future workers to engage in professional learning opportunities to improve quality of life for both workers and patients.The investigators propose to develop an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) training with virtual patients where the patient, an older adult, is represented digitally using 3 dimensional graphics on a screen or head mounted display. CNAs will be interviewed to identify workers’ needs and workplace challenges. The data from the CNA interviews will be used to inform a new generation of human-like virtual patients (i.e., 3D computer graphics models that have a human-like body and animations, are aware of their surroundings and conversations, and are displayed in an immersive environment) in order to develop relevant communications and attitudes training. CNAs will care for a virtual geriatric patient in repeated encounters to simulate and practice real-life interactions. The virtual patient remembers the conversations and is aware of its surroundings, which increases the interaction’s similarity to reality. Research will assess the feasibility and usability of the technology, as well as CNA’s attitudes and perceptions.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.