Developing Innovative Virtual Reality Simulations to Increase Health Care Providers' Understanding of Social Determinants of Health.

Introduction: Health care providers (HCPs) who work primarily with Medicaid patients must be competent in identifying and addressing social determinants of health (SDH). A curricular gap exists between promoting an understanding of SDH and teaching HCPs how to recognize and increase empathy to manage them. The project aim was to develop two virtual reality simulations (VRSs) as innovative methods to teach HCPs to identify and manage SDH.

Impact of immersive virtual reality simulations for changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.

Background: Virtual reality has promise as a training method within the affective domain, but investigation is still needed for intention to change behaviors based on social determinants of health.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the self-reported changes in knowledge and/or attitudes and planned behavior changes by healthcare workers for their future care of persons with challenges to their social determinants of health following completion of a first-person virtual reality experience.

Design: A descriptive qualitative design was used.

Telehealth in Psychiatric Nursing Education: Lessons From the Field.

This article summarizes the experiences that a Midwest college of nursing had when telepsychiatry was introduced for psychiatric-mental health post-master's nurse practitioner students to use in a clinical internship. Implications for nurse practitioner educators will be identified, and recommendations for future research will be explored. Described are the following: (1) policies and procedures the institution considered, (2) challenges that were encountered by faculty and students, and (3) strategies and limitations of these strategies defining best practice, what didactic content should be taught, and how clinical placements needed to be structured.

What Interventions Improve Outcomes for the Patient Who Is Depressed and in Pain?

Specific Clinical Issue: The purpose of this clinical consultation is to offer nurses evidence-based strategies to provide holistic care to their patients with comorbid depression and pain. The combination of depression and pain is common and, if not managed effectively, has negative outcomes. Treatment-resistance is one negative outcome.