Working in the medical field requires a wide range of knowledge, skills, and above all precision. According to WHO 2.6 million people die due to unsafe healthcare which underlines the importance of avoiding medical mistakes by empowering future medical students and creating a creative learning atmosphere to prepare them for what they will encounter as doctors, surgeons, obstetrics, etc.
The technology significantly impacts helping students and fresh graduates to become more familiar with the medical processes. In the next 20 years, all educational centers and hospitals will step on a new path to be involved with virtual reality by using modern gadgets. The world would be simulated to show students how to manage themselves in stressful situations and emergency conditions and learn to develop their skills and get familiar with the range of diseases by visiting patients and analyzing the symptoms. They apply all the lessons in a virtual environment which gives a massive chance to students to work on virtual patients without fearing doing it.
It allows students to learn in a virtual reality space and get hands- on experience in this modern world, then start their job after getting ready. Students can also be present in every live and real treatment session or surgery without being there physically. It gives them a great opportunity to make themselves prepared before visiting a patient, gives them more self-esteem about their abilities, and of course, reduces human errors in health care.
Using VR provides mass education for students without any limits. They attend the lectures from their home, working on several cases at any time, doing trial and error and simulations, and preparing for future work.
Using VR in this field is cost-beneficial for everyone. Still, more important, it helps to gain the knowledge of doctors to reduce the risks of medical errors in the world, especially in developing countries. As this technology will help people, governments can be part of this effective action and give subsidies to universities and hospitals to help the nations and the world. It can be seen as an investment for the government because they give money now to prevent some significant issues in the future. And as all say, prevention is better than occurrence.
Sources:
Jasarevic, T. (2019). WHO calls for urgent action to reduce patient harm in healthcare. Retrieved from WHO: https://www.who.int/news/item/13-09-2019-who-calls-for-urgent-action-to-reduce-patient-harm-in-healthcare
Morozova, A. (2020). Top Real World Examples of Using Virtual Reality in Medicine. Retrieved from jasoren: https://jasoren.com/top-real-world-examples-of-using-virtual-reality-in-medicine/
Shetty, R. (2021). Virtual reality: A medical training revolution during COVID-19. Retrieved from med-technews: https://www.med-technews.com/medtech-insights/vr-in-healthcare-insights/virtual-reality-a-medical-training-revolution-during-covid-1/
Virtual Reality in Medical Training: Educate Better, Save More Lives. (2021). Retrieved from program-ace: https://program-ace.com/blog/virtual-reality-in-medical-training/