REACHvr Team Receives Top Honors at International Health Care Simulation Conference

Kelly Foltz-Ramos, director of simulation at the School of Nursing, along with co-authors Bonnie Vest, a medical anthropologist and research associate professor at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Clifford Minter, REACHvr project coordinator, won the first place abstract award at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH). Their work focuses on an HRSA-funded initiative that supports virtual reality use in nursing education.

Presented by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, a global community that aims to enhance the quality of health care through simulation, the IMSH abstract award recognizes innovations and best practices in health care simulation.

This year’s meeting will be held Jan. 10-14 in San Antonio, Texas. More than 4,500 attendees from across the world are expected, featuring 800 sessions drawn from over 1,300 submissions.

The team’s presentation, “REACHvr: Leveraging Virtual Reality to Prepare Nursing Students for Rural and Underserved Care,” highlights an innovative program that uses virtual reality and online learning to prepare students to care for patients in rural and underserved communities. Over two semesters, students engage in multimedia education, including VR and virtual screen-based simulation scenarios, community-based assignments and online modules.

“Students who participated in REACHvr showed improvements in confidence, communication, and clinical decision-making related to caring for rural and underserved populations,” Foltz-Ramos says. “The virtual reality scenarios allow students to practice applying clinical knowledge within realistic community-based contexts, better preparing them for professional practice.”

The program was developed collaboratively with rural nurse practitioners and stakeholders in Western New York to ensure it aligns with the needs and priorities of the communities, including provider shortages, complex health needs and health disparities.

“By integrating community-informed virtual reality experiences into nursing education, REACHvr helps prepare a workforce that is better equipped to address the unique challenges of rural and underserved settings,” says Foltz-Ramos. “This approach supports more responsive, equitable care for individuals and communities with limited access to health services.”