VR Rehearsals: Building Confident Nurses Faster | Dr. Jenna Zeller

Nine in ten rookie nurses freeze during their first real code—no matter how many textbooks they’ve aced. What if they could practice the chaos in a headset first? In this episode, Dr. Norma Jones talks with Dr. Jenna Zeller, Assistant Director of Cabrillo College’s nursing program, about a layered VR workflow that lets students “fail safe,” page a cranky on-call physician, and still make it to lab with a smile. Zeller reveals how she bought Oculus headsets before she even had a lesson plan and why adding a simple “switch!” command keeps every observer on their toes. The payoff: sharper clinical judgment, lower anxiety, and a bump in lab attendance.

Take-aways
• Repeatable stack: skill demo → VR scenario → high-fidelity mannequin → rapid debrief
• “Switch!” cue that turns passive onlookers into active problem-solvers
• VR role-plays that build courage to page doctors early—cutting failure-to-rescue risks
• AI prompts that turn terse clinical notes into polished feedback emails in seconds