Ultimate Medical Academy Teaches Empathy, Sensitivity Through Virtual Reality at ‘Spark Summit’ Conference for Healthcare Employers
TAMPA, Fla. (October 14, 2020) – Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), a nonprofit higher education institution with the mission of equipping and empowering students to excel in healthcare careers, hosted more than 40 industry partner attendees at the 5th annual Spark Summit. Each year, the Summit brings together healthcare leaders from across the nation who partner with UMA to match graduates to much-needed healthcare roles within their organizations. Summit participants get to connect, share achievements, and gain new insights about trends in healthcare education, recruitment and professional development. This year’s Summit looked different than usual due to social distancing measures and travel restrictions, and due to a new and unique conference element – virtual reality (VR).
“VR has been a buzz-term for decades but in the last five years, it has really begun to emerge in practice, and education is a key area of opportunity,” said Geordie Hyland, UMA’s Executive Vice President. “Over the next decade, emerging technologies are expected to play a significant role in the transformation of education. The Spark Summit is giving UMA the chance to showcase some of our new VR learning experiences which are available now and were designed to help Healthcare employers upskill their workforces.”
During the 2020 Spark Summit, attendees donned VR goggles first to ‘meet and greet’ each other during an opening session hosted in a virtual downtown Tampa amphitheater and then to participate in empathy training vignettes.
Empathy and sensitivity are critical skills in healthcare – driving patient satisfaction, compliance and trust, which are good for patient health outcomes as well as a company’s success.
“UMA has more than a decade of experience in online learning, and the circumstances of this year presented an opportunity to share our expertise with partners in a new way,” said April Neumann, UMA’s Senior Vice President of Career Services. “Empathy is a vital skill for all industries that interact with customers and patients, especially healthcare. We wanted to provide a unique and meaningful VR experience that was educational while also being impactful.”
The training vignettes were created to be as realistic as possible, drawing on real-world experiences that patient-facing healthcare workers encounter working in a retail environment as a pharmacy technician, or even in a work-from-home environment supporting open enrollment for healthcare insurance organizations. The environments themselves were also crafted to be as realistic as possible, from the items present on the pharmacy counter to the number of screens an employee would have in a typical work-from-home position. Summit participants got to play the role of a healthcare worker in the VR scenario, interacting with the customer and their unique situation while recording and hearing their own responses, which helps to develop greater empathy.
“Creating a learning experience that is effective, fun and leaves a lasting impression really makes a difference for both adult learners and future-focused organizations,” said Neumann.
To learn more about UMA and how they are helping to equip, empower and recruit skilled healthcare workers, visit www.ultimatemedical.edu.
View the VR demos:
About Ultimate Medical Academy:
The need for skilled healthcare workers in the United States is critical and continues to grow. Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA) is an accredited, nonprofit educational institution that helps to meet that need by equipping and empowering students to do vital work at the heart of healthcare. In addition to offering diploma and degree programs, UMA works closely with healthcare companies to connect students directly to job opportunities.
Founded in 1994 and based in Tampa, Florida, UMA offers hands-on learning at its main campus in Clearwater, Florida as well as content-rich, interactive programs through its online campus. The institution supports students through every step of their journey with access to academic support, interview and resume coaching, job search assistance, technical support and more.
UMA has more than 63,000 alumni and 14,000 students nationwide. It also has three individually accredited centers for Continuing Medical Education (CME) that provide ongoing training and professional development opportunities to more than 30,000 physicians, nurses and other medical professionals throughout the U.S. annually.
UMA is institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES, www.ABHES.org). The continuing medical education programs are individually accredited and are not included within the institution’s grant of accreditation from ABHES.
UMA is institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). The continuing medical education programs are individually accredited and are not included within the institution’s grant of accreditation from ABHES.
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