Bertelsmann Education Group | Cary, 06/19/2018

Understanding Patients Better Thanks to Virtual Reality

Relias is making one of its courses available free of charge. It teaches learners how to deal with dementia correctly from a patient’s perspective using the latest 360-degree technology. The course aims to describe the requirements for caring for dementia patients as realistically as possible. Trial users say it had an immediate motivating effect on them to further improve their work.

Normally, the thousands of courses in Relias’s extensive range are aimed at healthcare professionals – nurses, geriatric nurses and doctors, for example. But because dealing with dementia has become part of everyday life for an ever-increasing number of people, the Bertelsmann Education Group company has decided to make one of its virtual reality courses available free of charge to anyone: “A Day in the Life of Henry: A Dementia Experience” provides a surprisingly realistic impression of what it’s like to live with dementia – and to interact with dementia patients kindly and appropriately.

“A Day in the Life of Henry: A Dementia Experience” is available in a virtual reality version with 360-degree features, or in a simple desktop version. Relias aims to give viewers – the open course is primarily aimed at healthcare sector staff - a new perspective. Everything is seen from the point of view of Henry, a dementia patient.

The course aims to teach learners what it’s like for a patient when the people around them do not behave appropriately, for example by coming too close and talking about him in the third person, as if he couldn’t hear them. In short sequences the course, also attempts to illustrate the limitations of living with dementia for those affected, how they still perceive their environment or what their reactions mean. This helps users to become more aware of their behavior towards people suffering from dementia.

“One of the challenges healthcare professionals face is understanding how patients feel, and understanding the reality in which patients with dementia live, and its impact on their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors,” explains Ben Johnson, Chief Product Officer at Relias. “Experiencing this reality, even vicariously and for a short time through this course, helps us understand the importance of our interventions, no matter how minor they may seem.”

More powerful than traditional point-of-view training videos, VR allows viewers to personally understand what the patient is experiencing. During and after the VR experience, learners report a variety of feelings – anger, sadness, compassion. Most importantly, they come away motivated to improve caregiver interactions. Creating positive behavior change is the goal of all Relias training, and this VR experience provokes meaningful introspection and discussions on improving the quality of patients’ lives.