ALBANY — For generations, learning to be a nurse meant studying textbooks, practicing on mannequins and then facing real people.

Now, modern nursing schools have added a new step: virtual reality.

After students master physical skills — such as blood draws — they can enter a virtual hospital room.

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The goal isn’t to practice those motor skills. But being a nurse isn’t just about being able to find a vein or take vitals. They are part of the medical team — and educators say virtual reality helps them learn that role.

“When they do get to clinicals (working with real patients), they’re not starting at zero. They already have a game plan,” Jason Coley said.

He is the director of the Center for Academic Innovation at Maria College in Albany. In 2023, the college received a $770,088 federal grant to build the virtual reality lab at the center. Other nursing schools have also started building virtual reality labs.

The Maria College lab was started to support the Andrea Lewis Siek School of Nursing, but there are plans to expand. Next semester, occupational therapy students will also be able to use the lab.

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Maria College Nursing Department Chair Jessica McNally said that for many students, this is “absolutely better” than the old way of learning. People expect videos and interactive elements in learning now, she said.

“It’s not just reading a textbook,” she said. “It’s YouTube. It’s the way they’ve learned to learn.”

Teachers select scenarios for the students to master. In some, they must ask the right questions to get the answers they need. In another, they have to figure out which patient to handle first.

“The wife has postpartum hemorrhage, but the husband is freaking out,” Coley said of that scenario. “He’s the one the students need to calm down. The wife is calm.”

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Other scenarios are simple vital checks — but the computer prints out a report noting whether the nurse put on protective gear, and when. They lose points if they don’t introduce themselves to the patient, or if they don’t check the patient’s wristband to make sure they are treating the right person. Those actions become automatic for medical personnel, but the hope is that these nurses will start clinicals with those skills already engrained.

“They won’t need as much hand-holding,” Coley said.

He’s hoping they will be able to spend most of their time in clinicals — where they work on patients in real medical settings — learning the one thing nothing else can teach.

“They can just focus on human-to-human,” he said.

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Students gave it high marks.

Aidymarie Maldonado of Albany, who is studying to become an LPN, was given a semi-conscious patient in virtual reality. Her task: pain assessment.

“It’s really difficult because you’re finding if they’re in pain by vitals and assessment,” she said. “The patient grunts and that’s how you know they’re in pain.”

Then she had to report the pain assessment — still in virtual reality — and find out what pain medication she could dispense.

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“I love it. It feels very realistic,” she said.

Jacinda Alcindor of Schenectady, who is also studying to become an LPN, relishes the virtual reality program because it gives her something she doesn’t get in clinicals.

“We always have somebody with us,” she said of clinicals. “In this, it’s just me, like I’m the nurse.”

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