Nurses and Second Life

I was invited to a meeting of nurse educators in Wellington on Friday. They were from a number of New Zealand educational institutions and were very interested in the potential of Second Life for nurse education. Needless to say, they were especially interested in hearing about the Second Life Education New Zealand project and in particular the virtual birthing unit.

Nursing and medical resources in Second Life
There are few avenues these days for educational funding in New Zealand so these nurses are going to have to think about how they can utilize resources that are already available in Second Life. So the first step in their collaborative project is to review how nurses and health professionals are using SL.

• Projects in JoKaydia
  
• Health education in Second Life
• Top 10: Virtual Medical Sites in Second Life!
• SLENZ virtual birthing unit
• Land of the Long White Cloud - virtual hospital
• SL Health - email discussion list for health educators using SL
  

My advice
My advice to nurse educators looking at Second Life is to:

• find a SL mentor and learn as much as you can about how SL works;
• network with other nurse and health professionals using SL using online communication tools such as blogs, YouTube, Slideshare and of course, Second Life;
• develop learning activities in SL that require little or no development to keep things as cheap and easy as possible;
• work alongside your educational institution to ensure you have full access to SL;
• collaborate with each other using virtual tools such as wiki, Google Docs, Skype and SL.
  

I would love to hear from you if you are involved in nurse education and Second Life - what do you teach in SL? How effective have you found it? What would you advise nurse educators starting out in SL?