Challenge

Did you know that 87% of healthcare education providers struggle to secure enough clinical placements for their students? This challenge becomes even more pressing as our aging population requires more skilled healthcare professionals.

Curtin University, a leading public research institution ranked #1 in Western Australia, faced mounting pressure to prepare healthcare students for real-world patient care. With limited clinical placement opportunities, rising costs, and the need for flexible learning solutions, they needed an innovative approach to maintain their high educational standards while serving their 50,000+ student population.

Solution

With student skill development as the primary focus, Hyperspace delivered a browser-based virtual training environment that transformed how healthcare education is delivered:

• Virtual Home and Hospital Visits: Students practice risk assessments across 15 categories in realistic, safe environments
• Interactive Team Meetings: Cross-disciplinary collaboration without scheduling or location constraints
• Smart Assessment Tools: Built-in tracking of student performance, engagement, and decision-making

Implementation

Hyperspace worked with Curtin to create three core virtual learning activities: Virtual Home Visit (VHV), Virtual Hospital Visit (VHsV), and Interprofessional Virtual Hospital Visit (IPE VHsV). These environments enable students from physiotherapy, pharmacy, social work, and psychology to practice clinical skills individually and collaborate in team settings.

Impact

• Recognition: Presented at World Confederation for Physical Therapy and won the Curtin Commercial Innovation Teaching and Learning Award
• Accessibility: Enabled remote students to participate without specialized equipment
• Cost-Efficiency: Reduced expenses related to clinical placements and teaching resources

Customer Testimonial

“This learning activity provides students with an experience that is similar to one they would have in the clinical setting.” – Anne Furness, Curtin University Director of Teaching & Learning

Student Feedback

• “The sit-down virtual meeting was fun and made it feel like an actual meeting.”
• “Seeing a patient in a room just before an interprofessional team meeting was quite realistic and made it easy to keep them at the focus of care.”
• “It’s nice to put a face to a person’s voice while somehow keeping anonymous”

Expert Recognition

“Virtual reality to teach and assess a student’s ability to examine a patient and arrive at a diagnosis or problem list has great potential as a teaching tool.” – Dr. Ah-Cheng Goh, World Confederation for Physical Therapy

The Future of Healthcare Education

Hyperspace’s virtual training platform has proven that effective clinical education can happen without physical constraints. This success shows how virtual solutions can address real-world healthcare education challenges while maintaining high educational standards.

Take Your First Step

Ready to transform your healthcare education program? Book a consultation to see how Hyperspace can help you create engaging, cost-effective clinical training experiences for your students.