Bennie Botha, who is acting as the Head of Information, Communication and Simulation Technology in the School of Nursing Simulation Laboratory, has developed a virtual environment in which nursing students use immersive VR to perform a simulation scenario. 

Botha says some people experience cybersickness, better understood as a form of motion sickness associated with virtual reality environments, which is a significant issue and is difficult to address.  

By using the KAT Walk mini, which is an omni-directional treadmill, he believes it can be determined whether it decreases or eliminates cyber sickness due to sensory mismatch - the mismatch of one or more of the body’s senses.

In a media release by the UFS, Botha says this technology has never been used in health-care education. It is mostly used in military and pilot training and is very popular as a gaming platform for hardcore VR gamers. “To test and provide a possible solution, I am going to incorporate the KAT Walk mini onto which students are strapped, and they can physically walk and turn around without the need for large open spaces. With this, I will try to determine whether it decreases or even eliminates cybersickness due to sensory mismatch while using immersive VR. 

"I wanted to provide possible evidence of what causes cybersickness and want to enable VR as an educational tool, not just for gaming. I think immersive VR has a bright future if the kinks (of which the biggest is cybersickness) can be minimised,” says Botha.

He successfully applied for funding earlier last year and received R150 000 in August. “As part of my masters in 2018 and 2019, I developed an environment where nursing students could practise a scenario where the patient has a foreign object in their right lung, tested this, and during testing, we found that cyber sickness was actually a great barrier to certain students. It is not only for nursing students, but for most people that experience cybersickness. That’s when the idea came of how we could address cybersickness. After research, to address it we needed to give the user the opportunity to physically move and act, so that the body can act as if it is doing what it’s doing in a virtual environment,” he says. The research project forms part of Botha’s PHD this year.

Botha further adds that immersive VR grants students more time and a more accessible platform where they can practise their skills, as it is easy to use and easy to set up compared to other modalities of simulation. 

“By seeking and possibly implementing the new research, I aim to provide students with an equal opportunity to participate in immersive VR simulation, as it currently excludes people who are prone to high levels of cybersickness. This means that they cannot benefit from the same opportunities as other students do. I believe it can help all nursing students in South Africa and Africa, as it is much more cost-effective than high-technology manikins and is easier to set up and access, with much less manual input required to make it work,” he concludes.

OFM News/Blaine Jones