Dagoberto Salinas wants to improve how nurses are trained to use peripherally-inserted central catheters (PICC).

Salinas, a master’s-prepared registered nurse who is in his first year of the Master of Science in Health Professions Education program, co-founded CLIN SPEC Solutions, LLC to pioneer the use of virtual reality (VR) in PICC lines to fill a gap that he saw during his 20 years working in the U.S. Navy.

“My exposure to diverse simulation environments in the military unveiled the remarkable potential of VR simulations,” said Salinas, who recently retired from military service and whose Institute tuition is being funded through the post-9/11 GI Bill. “VR has shown promising results in enhancing critical thinking and technical abilities in the health professions and can outperform traditional methodologies when strategically implemented.”

He plans to use what he’s learning in the HPEd program’s simulation track to increase the number of vascular access specialists who are needed to support patient care in inpatient and outpatient healthcare settings, and which would help alleviate the country’s continued shortage of nurses overall.

“New VR technology can be successfully implemented by practicing interprofessional collaboration, carefully managing resources, referencing best practices for design, promoting the training of faculty and students, and sustaining a robust program evaluation process,” said Salinas, “The MGH IHP was the ideal place to learn how to implement my desire to address these critical gaps in vascular access training.”