Nursing Simulation: Enhance Patient Care with Virtual Nurses and Cultural Competency

Nursing Simulation: Enhance Patient Care with Virtual Nurses and Cultural Competency

Healthcare undergoes continuous transformation, driven by innovative technologies that redefine patient care. Virtual nursing represents one advancement designed to address the growing demand for healthcare professionals while expanding access to care in underserved areas. Nursing simulation training prepares nurses for diverse patient scenarios in a controlled and safe environment to hone technical and communication skills. Cultural competency plays a critical role in this evolution to equip healthcare providers with the knowledge and sensitivity needed to meet the needs of patients from various backgrounds in a virtual nursing environment. While interpreters assist patients and nurses with communication, nurses should use best practices to ensure they provide value and cultural sensitivity. This article, by Melissa Jo Tully, BSN, MHPE, RN-BC, explores how virtual nursing simulations should be used to improve communication through interpreters.

Virtual Nurses: The Elevation of Healthcare Delivery

Virtual nurses now play a growing role in hospitals as they tackle staffing shortages and enhance patient care. These professionals actively connect with patients through digital platforms, where they manage patient intake, provide education, and conduct post-discharge follow-ups. Their work enables on-site nurses to focus more time on critical hands-on care, which improves efficiency and patient outcomes. Healthcare professionals must develop strong cultural competency skills to engage in video patient encounters, as virtual nurses frequently serve patients from diverse backgrounds. Virtual nursing simulation actively prepares virtual nurses for these interactions. These programs help nurses deliver culturally sensitive care to allow them to address their biases.

Cultural Competency: A Core Healthcare Skill

Cultural competency refers to a healthcare provider’s ability to understand and respect the diverse cultural values, beliefs, and behaviors that influence patients’ health decisions. Providers with cultural competency can build trust with their patients that results in better outcomes and patient satisfaction.

In a virtual, tele-healthcare landscape increasingly focused on value-based care, cultural competency becomes even more crucial. Medicare’s Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program links hospital reimbursements to patient outcomes and satisfaction. The VBP emphasizes the importance of high-quality, patient-centered care delivery. Virtual nursing simulations offer a practical way for healthcare professionals to develop the skills necessary to provide this type of care in real-world settings, where cultural sensitivity makes all the difference.

Interpreter Services in Virtual Nursing Simulations

Effective communication is the cornerstone of patient care, and this becomes especially important with non-English-speaking patients. Virtual nursing simulations provide a valuable opportunity for nurses to practice the use of interpreter services in high-pressure situations, such as critical emergency room admissions or complicated discharge instructions.

New solutions, such as Artificial intelligence (AI), deliver immediate language support that does not require hospitals to schedule human interpreters. This innovation strengthens communication and promotes culturally competent care to help patients fully understand their medical options and care plans.

Nursing simulation helps nurses learn evidence-based interpreter practices and offers a direct, immersive approach to learn critical communication skills for encounters with non-English-speaking patients. Healthcare educators can add cultural competency to virtual healthcare simulations to create a structured environment where professionals practice patient care across diverse cultural backgrounds. Simulation enables professionals to address potential communication barriers, predict cultural needs, and interact with patients in a culturally sensitive manner. Scenarios can range from how to handle sensitive cultural practices at admission to methods that respect the patient’s background in the discharge education process. Simulations create controlled, realistic scenarios where nurses can learn to apply best practices with interpreters. This combination of clinical expertise and communication techniques leads to more culturally competent care. Here’s my approach to this training:

  1. Face Validity of Scenarios: The first step is the creation of simulation scenarios that reflect real-world situations where interpreters are necessary. Ensure you have current data about your organization’s patient population and interpreter use. Reach out to a nursing quality or informaticist to help determine the nuances of the patient population you serve. Once validated by your patient population data, these scenarios might include high-stress settings such as an emergency room admission, a detailed discharge with medication instructions, or a discussion about end-of-life care. These scenarios allow nurses to practice through virtual, AI, or in-person interpreters in various clinical environments.

  2. Incorporation of Technology: Currently, more hospitals actively use video remote interpreter (VRI) services and virtual nurses, and simulations offer nurses the opportunity to practice with this technology. In these scenarios, nurses interact with virtual interpreters through tablets or computer screens, which mirrors actual clinical practice. In some hospital settings, AI interpreters now serve as a breakthrough solution to bridge language barriers between patients and healthcare providers. These tools enhance communication through real-time translation in multiple languages, which helps patients understand their medical options and care instructions. AI tools also operate 24/7 and deliver immediate language support without the need to schedule human interpreters. This accessibility streamlines the care process and improves patient satisfaction. The use of AI for interpreters introduces nurses to the technical nuances of virtual remote interpretation. It also prepares them for adjustments to ensure the patient sees and hears the interpreter clearly and confirms the smooth operation of the technology involved.

  3. Cultural Sensitivity Training: Evidence-based interpreter practices extend beyond language alone. Cultural competence shapes how nurses communicate with patients. Healthcare educators must integrate cultural sensitivity into scenarios. For example, when a nurse works with a Muslim patient who speaks Arabic in a simulation, they must learn to convey medical information while they respect cultural customs, such as how to address family members or maintain appropriate personal space. These simulations should prompt nurses to reflect on their potential biases or assumptions and consider how they affect patient interactions. Practice in a safe environment helps nurses develop greater awareness of cultural communication dimensions and enhances their ability to provide patient-centered care. This practice supports nurses’ progress toward cultural competency in nursing simulation.


View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Applying Cultural Competency in Nursing Simulation Virtual Training to learn more!


Cultural Sensitivity in Nursing Simulation

Nursing simulation programs must extend beyond language skills to include cultural sensitivity. These programs help nurses understand and respect cultural nuances to provide respectful, empathetic care. Through simulated scenarios, nurses can recognize and address their cultural biases, which leads to more thoughtful, patient-centered interactions. The insights from these simulations enhance both technical skills and patient outcomes, which makes cultural competency a vital component of healthcare education.

Virtual Simulation’s Future Role in Healthcare

Virtual simulations deepen their knowledge of cultural dynamics in patient care. AI interpreters and virtual nurses embedded within these simulations prepare nurses to address the complexities of modern healthcare delivery.

Healthcare professionals who excel at both technical and cultural aspects of patient care will offer more inclusive and effective services. Nursing simulation improves patient outcomes and creates trust between patients and providers, which meets the core objectives of value-based care. As healthcare evolves, cultural competency will remain essential to compassionate and effective care delivery.

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References

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  • Farokhzadian, J., Nematollahi, M., Dehghan Nayeri, N., & Faramarzpour, M. (2022). Using a model to design, implement, and evaluate a training program for improving cultural competence among undergraduate nursing students: A mixed methods study. BMC Nursing, 21(1), Article 85. [invalid URL removed]
  • Jongen, C. S., McCalman, J., & Bainbridge, R. G. (2017). Implementing and evaluating health promotion services and programs to improve cultural competency: A systematic scoping review. Frontiers in Public Health, 5, Article 24. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00024
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BSN, MHPE, RN, CHPN
CEO
Melissa Jo Tully, BSN, MHPE, RN, CHPN, is a healthcare education innovator specializing in simulation-based learning, AI, and VR for competency development. A Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse in Tampa, Florida, Tully combines her Vanderbilt education with hands-on experience to advance critical thinking and patient safety. Through her company, Medical Simulation Consulting, she shapes the future of healthcare training, offering expertise to educational institutions and healthcare organizations.