Health minister says new high tech offering at UNB will help attract and retain more professionals in the field<\/p>\n
Author of the article:<\/p>\n
John Chilibeck<\/a> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Local Journalism Initiative reporter<\/p>\n Published Jun 26, 2025 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 5\u00a0days ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 2 minute read<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n The University of New Brunswick will begin offering its 600 or so nursing students virtual reality training, a rarity in Canada.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to keep reading.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n It\u2019s a high-tech move supporters say will attract and retain more talent in a health-care system that\u2019s teetering from a shortage of professionals.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Can you imagine pilots without simulators?<\/p>\n Dr. John Dornan<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Health Minister Dr. John Dornan said the training would attract more nursing students and prepare them better for the real world.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will help nursing students be more prepared when they enter the workforce,\u201d Dr. Dornan said at an announcement at the nursing school at the university\u2019s Fredericton campus.<\/p>\n \u201cCan 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Morning Email Telegraph-Journal<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n The students will gain clinical experience in a simulation suite, a medication administration suite, and 14 virtual reality stations at UNB\u2019s Fredericton and Moncton campuses. The program was developed in collaboration with UNB\u2019s computer science faculty.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents will be more confident and better prepared to face challenges in clinical settings,\u201d Dr. Dornan said.<\/p>\n Lorna Butler, the dean of UNB\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Each student will be offered up to 100 virtual sessions.<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n New Brunswick has about 8,500 working nurses, but it still faces shortages of hundreds of the health-care professionals.<\/p>\n Dr. Dornan later told reporters offering better training would help attract and retain more people to the field.<\/p>\n \u201cThis lab being set up is one of the first in the country,\u201d he said of the room set up with VR headsets and large computer screens. \u201cIt will allow nurses to see virtually any clinical scenario that they might see when they go to work and be prepared so it\u2019s not a surprise when they get to the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n These nurses can be catalysts of change in transforming the culture of care for all New Brunswickers.<\/p>\n Gillian Ferris<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gillian Ferris, a vice president at Shannex, which runs 10 nursing homes in the province, told the small crowd in a room at UNB\u2019s MacLaggan Hall that the program would help transform care.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d Ferris said. \u201cThese nurses can be catalysts of change in transforming the culture of care for all New Brunswickers, including older adults, in our health-care system.\u201d<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links New Brunswick The Issues Education Health care Health minister says new high tech offering at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[158,67,132,68,729,730],"class_list":{"0":"post-33135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-virtual-reality","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-virtual-reality","13":"tag-vr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114784821257586545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dornan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0626-lb-announcement.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Telegraph-Journal\"](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/18.9.5\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tj.svg\"){kind=logo}
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Ollando Brown, an education technology specialist at UNB\u2019s faculty of nursing, helps Health Minister Dr. John Dornan use a virtual reality headset. Photo by John Chilibeck\/ Brunswick News<\/p>\n![\"0626](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0626-lb-announcement-2.jpg\")
Gillian Ferris, a vice president at Shannex, left, leaves the podium as Lorna Butler, the dean of UNB\u2019s faculty of nursing, addresses the audience about a $500,000 announcement for virtual reality training. Photo by John Chilibeck\/ Brunswick News<\/p>\n\n