Penn Nursing to Study Social VR with Hemodialysis Patients

• The University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing is conducting a study on the impact of social VR on patients receiving hemodialysis treatments.
• This study is funded by the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life program which supports innovative, nurse-driven care approaches.
• Social VR aims to reduce feelings of isolating by replacing clinical environments during treatment with social experiences for patients.

Nurses stand beside patients through all the stages of care, from diagnosis through treatment, and beyond. This places nurses in a prime position to provide innovations to health care that affect patients holistically.

For example, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has announced a collaborative study with the University’s virtual reality lab and New York University’s College of Nursing. This study was funded by Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life Program and explores the impact of social virtual reality (VR) on patients undergoing hemodialysis treatment.

Explore what nurses need to know about this new study and the larger role social VR may play in the future of their patient’s care.

Serious Illness and End of Life Program

This study on social virtual reality (VR) for hemodialysis patients was awarded $50,000 in funding from the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life Program.

The Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life Program is a grant funded by the Rita Hillman and Alex Foundation. The program aims to support innovative, nurse-driven care approaches for vulnerable patient populations. 10 projects, including this study, received fund

For Hemodialysis patients, treatment can be a very isolating experience, especially in rural communities where patients cannot connect with one another. This study will explore how virtual reality (VR) can be used to change a patient’s environment and facilitate social interaction between patients.

What is Social VR?

Social VR is a virtual reality system “that allows multiple users to join a collaborative virtual environment and communicate with one another.” It often allows users an escape from their physical reality by socializing in settings such as nightclubs, parks, or movie theaters.

While this technology is new, it is being rapidly explored by multiple industries such as social media, social work, aviation, and now healthcare. Social VR chatrooms can take on many forms, such as private events allowing patients to interact with their peers in environments typically inaccessible to them or public chatrooms allowing patients to socialize with people worldwide.

Previously, VR has been used in educational simulations such as the UCSF School of Nursing’s program that utilizes virtual reality to bring students into clinical environments based on particular nursing specialties and practice settings.

This type of educational VR for nurses has been studied since at least 2010, when VR simulations were used for percutaneous renal access training. In comparison, studies exploring social VR only began publishing in 2018.

The social VR topics studied included:

• Social VR for patients recovering from knee replacement surgery
• Social VR for people with disabilities (PWD)
• Social VR for LGBTQ people
• Social VR for patients living with dementia
• Social VR for older adults, including those in full-time care facilities

The need for social VR increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting quarantine, isolating patients and nurses from their social support systems. It continues to be studied for its ability to bridge social connections and abate feelings of loneliness and isolation in its users.

Social VR for Hemodialysis Patients

Hemodialysis is a life-saving treatment for late-stage kidney diseases, where a patient’s blood is filtered through an artificial kidney, also known as a dialyzer. These treatments can last three to four hours and must be completed at least three times a week, which can be a very time-consuming and uncomfortable reality for patients.

This, unfortunately, leads to many patients skipping their treatment sessions, which can rapidly worsen their condition.

Penn Nursing hopes this study will help patients use social VR to escape their physical environment during treatment and replace it with a more stimulating one. This study is done in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Virtual Reality ColLABorative and New York University’s College of Nursing.

For nurses, understanding the rise of social VR’s popularity and its role in this study is essential for educating patients who may have never interacted with virtual reality before this study. As the primary point of contact for most patients, it makes sense that nurses are pioneering innovative approaches to a patient’s holistic care.

The Bottom Line

The study begins in 2024 and will run for 18 months, exploring the impact of social VR on hemodialysis patients experiencing isolation. This investment in experimental technology will hopefully continue as nurses work at the forefront of innovation for their patients. 

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