Empowering nursing students to master therapeutic communication skills with AI and VR at Ontario Tech University

About

The #1 undergraduate research university in Canada (Re$earch Infosource 2024), Ontario Tech serves over 11,000 students across 105 graduate and undergraduate programs. 

The university was first introduced to Bodyswaps in 2022 through their collaborative nursing program with Durham
College. They took part in the Healthcare Education grant in 2025, supporting research conducted around how different delivery methods influenced participants’ sense of immersion. Post-grant they’re expanding and implementing Bodyswaps throughout their Year 2 Mental Health program

• Offer alternative simulations when clinical placements are limited or unavailable, due to structural changes in the program or external constraints. 
• Provide equitable and consistent experiential learning to ensure all students gain practice in key therapeutic communication skills.
• Enhance student preparedness for clinical placements, especially where real-life scenarios are hard to replicate
  consistently or repetitively, such as mental health crises.

Deployment

Collaborative beginnings

Ontario Tech first used Bodyswaps on their collaborative degree program with Durham College, mostly focused on our TeamSTEPPS modules for their medical-surgical courses.

Expansion to the Mental Health curriculum

Due to reduced availability of clinical placements, Bodyswaps was formally adopted into their Year 2 mental health course. By blending VR & AI simulation with in-person placements, the team can ensure students are still meeting all learning objectives and entry-to-practice competencies for nursing, despite the growing lack of placements.

Multi-modal rollout 

• Orientation & Introduction: Sessions began with Bodyswaps cast on a classroom screen to introduce the platform.
• Pre-Lab Desktop Assignment: Students completed the Empathy-Driven Communication in Healthcare learner pathway independently on desktop.
• In-Lab VR Sessions: Students then rotated through three modules / AI roleplays in VR:
  • Active Listening in Healthcare Roleplay
  • Mental Health Practitioner
  • Communicating in a Person-Centered Way

Impact

• Students felt more prepared to handle difficult conversations, like suicide risk assessments. One student remarked, “It’s
  okay to ask these really difficult questions. I think I’ll be able to do it in clinical.”
• In a recent survey, 32/37 students agreed or strongly agreed that Bodyswaps improved their understanding of communication, empathy, and therapeutic interaction. 
• Faculty noted improved midterm scores in areas linked to Bodyswaps content, such as safety planning and therapeutic communication.

88% of students would recommend Bodyswaps to their peers

Advice

• Start with psychological safety: Framing simulations as formative and stress-free helped students engage confidently.
• Engage IT early: System-level setup, especially for VR headsets, benefits from early technical involvement.
• Be open to learning: Even faculty new to VR found the Bodyswaps platform intuitive with a little exploration.

Research

The study, headed up by Associate Professor Alvaro Quevedo and in collaboration with Andrea Cope and Dr. Adam Dubrowski, examined how different delivery methods for a communication-focused patient scenario influenced participants’
sense of immersion when using Bodyswaps on a computer, in a VR headset, and in an audio-only format. 

They assessed using the Presence Questionnaire (PQ) to determine how present and engaged the 6 participants felt.

They first created an AI roleplay scenario featuring a post-surgical patient who was hesitant about taking her prescribed narcotics. The PQ consists of five subscales: Realism, Possibility to Act, Quality of Interface, Possibility to Examine, and Self-Evaluation of Performance.

Results

Results from six participants in an undergraduate nursing program showed that PQ scores were highest for VR (78.92 – Very High Presence), followed by PC (56.92 – High Presence), and Audio-Only (48.84 – Moderate Presence). 

As expected, VR provided the most immersive experience. 

However, participant feedback indicated that some performed better (as reported by Bodyswaps) when using the computer version. When visual cues were removed, participants reported feeling disconnected from the experience due to the lack of visual context and perceived the emotional transitions as abrupt

Future plans

Ontario Tech will continue using Bodyswaps in the mental health program through the academic year, with a full evaluation planned for Spring 2026. There is hope to expand integration into med-surge courses again by Fall 2026. 

Faculty are particularly interested in comparing cohorts who experience VR simulations before or after clinical placements, to better understand the sequencing impact on skill development.