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Health minister says new high tech offering at UNB will help attract and retain more professionals in the field
Author of the article:
John Chilibeck • Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Published Jun 26, 2025 • Last updated 5 days ago • 2 minute read
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Rachel Merrithew, a registered nurse with the Nurses Association of New Brunswick, uses a virtual reality headset while Health Minister John Dornan prepares to do the same. Photo by John Chilibeck/Brunswick NewsArticle content
The University of New Brunswick will begin offering its 600 or so nursing students virtual reality training, a rarity in Canada.
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It’s a high-tech move supporters say will attract and retain more talent in a health-care system that’s teetering from a shortage of professionals.
Thanks to an injection of $500,000 from the Holt Liberal government, the students will be able to don virtual reality headsets and work on mock patients, rather than on real, live patients who could suffer the consequences of any mistakes.
Can you imagine pilots without simulators?
Dr. John Dornan
Health Minister Dr. John Dornan said the training would attract more nursing students and prepare them better for the real world.
“This will help nursing students be more prepared when they enter the workforce,” Dr. Dornan said at an announcement at the nursing school at the university’s Fredericton campus.
“Can you imagine pilots without simulators? Imagine the first time a pilot takes a flight and is in the air at 20,000 feet. And now, we are catching up. We are realizing that simulation exposes students to what they might see in the field. They might not see it very often, but they might see it someday. And the best place to see it first is in a simulation model.”
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Ollando Brown, an education technology specialist at UNB’s faculty of nursing, helps Health Minister Dr. John Dornan use a virtual reality headset. Photo by John Chilibeck/ Brunswick News
The students will gain clinical experience in a simulation suite, a medication administration suite, and 14 virtual reality stations at UNB’s Fredericton and Moncton campuses. The program was developed in collaboration with UNB’s computer science faculty.
“Students will be more confident and better prepared to face challenges in clinical settings,” Dr. Dornan said.
Lorna Butler, the dean of UNB’s faculty of nursing, said the school would collaborate with its partners, the Horizon Health Network, which runs most of the hospitals in southern New Brunswick, and Shannex, a private nursing home business, to ensure the model fits with emerging trends in the field.
Gillian Ferris, a vice president at Shannex, left, leaves the podium as Lorna Butler, the dean of UNB’s faculty of nursing, addresses the audience about a $500,000 announcement for virtual reality training. Photo by John Chilibeck/ Brunswick News
Each student will be offered up to 100 virtual sessions.
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New Brunswick has about 8,500 working nurses, but it still faces shortages of hundreds of the health-care professionals.
Dr. Dornan later told reporters offering better training would help attract and retain more people to the field.
“This lab being set up is one of the first in the country,” he said of the room set up with VR headsets and large computer screens. “It will allow nurses to see virtually any clinical scenario that they might see when they go to work and be prepared so it’s not a surprise when they get to the workplace.”
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, four out of every 10 registered nurses in the province will be eligible to retire in the next five years, increasing pressure on the provincial government to recruit and retain more of them.
These nurses can be catalysts of change in transforming the culture of care for all New Brunswickers.
Gillian Ferris
Gillian Ferris, a vice president at Shannex, which runs 10 nursing homes in the province, told the small crowd in a room at UNB’s MacLaggan Hall that the program would help transform care.
“The addition of the innovation lab and extended reality education model will further position UNB faculty of nursing as a leader in re-imaging clinical learning to help shape and empower this generation of nurses,” Ferris said. “These nurses can be catalysts of change in transforming the culture of care for all New Brunswickers, including older adults, in our health-care system.”
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