The Virtual Health Center Experience is an innovative and interactive telehealth simulation designed and developed exclusively for Sonoran’s MS in Clinical Nutrition program. It’s a dynamic platform that immerses students in realistic clinical scenarios, fostering practical experiential learning and honing essential clinical nutrition skills.
It is designed to prepare you for future clinical nutrition practice by helping you integrate your prior learning and learn how to apply your learning in a diverse array of clinical situations that are frequently encountered by Clinical Nutritionists. The cases will help strengthen your clinical skills in history taking, motivational interviewing, and conducting a nutrition-focused physical examination in a telehealth setting. The cases will also help strengthen your critical thinking and client management skills.
As an MSCN student at Sonoran, our virtual health center gives you access to engaging with diverse clients and clinical situations guided by a virtual supervising clinician. Each case presents unique challenges replicating real-life clinical nutrition practice, where you interact with virtual clients, analyze client data, and engage in simulated physical examinations and interactive assessments, culminating in your development of evidence-based case management plans. Live, synchronous Virtual Grand Rounds sessions with your faculty and classmates supplement your learning, providing a comprehensive and impactful educational experience.
Spans four courses in the MSCN curriculum, with each course focusing on a different theme:
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Chronic Disease
Complex Systemic Disorders
Co-Morbidities and Complex Medical Disorders
Each course will take you through a series of cases in various outpatient settings. Your final Clinical Application course will take you through a series of clinical rotations to offer you more specialized training in select topics.
Each case has been collaboratively developed through a multistep process by an expert team of practicing clinicians/nutritionists, educators, and technical designers. The cases are authentic and reflective of actual dialogue, presenting concerns, and challenges that occur in clinical practice.
Clinical training is an integral part of any health professional program and yet is often one of the most challenging for educators to execute consistently and effectively. Even at the best facilities, a student’s practical education is generally limited by the type of clients that enter the clinic. So, many times, students complete their education lacking sufficient exposure to important clinical conditions. One solution is to standardize training using virtual patients, a concept that is not new to health professional education. However, the applications that currently exist are generally allopathic in focus and do not meet the specialized needs for training clinical nutritionists and other integrative healthcare practitioners, particularly those that work in outpatient or telehealth-based practices, and that have a clinical focus on nutrition care.
Sonoran’s Virtual Health Center Experience (VHCE) is the solution to this challenge. Guided by the vision of the founding dean of the College of Nutrition, Gena E. Kadar, DC, MS, CNS, the VHCE is an innovative and interactive telehealth simulation designed and developed exclusively for Sonoran’s MSCN program.
The Virtual Health Center allows for anytime-anywhere clinical training. It is a realistic, challenging, and immersive environment that simulates the interaction between the client and you, the student, guided by a clinical supervisor in a telehealth encounter. It replaces the need for standardized clients and allows you to practice applying your skills safely and consistently. It also ensures you have experience managing the most common clinical cases you will encounter in the future practice, an outcome that is difficult to achieve in a traditional live clinical setting. The cases are designed to be bias-free and sensitive to diversity, equity, and inclusion in health care. The cases model best practices in clinical care while challenging you with embedded assessments that engage you in critical thinking and clinical problem-solving.
We are honored to share that the depth, breadth, and impact of the Virtual Health Center Experience at Sonoran, including the Virtual Grand Rounds, received an important recognition by the Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialist (BCNS) by contributing to the remarkable 349 hours that the MSCN program is approved for CNS candidates to apply toward the Supervised Practice Experience (SPE).
Studies support the benefits of virtual health clinics and their efficacy in training health care professionals. According to a Journal of Medical Internet Research study on virtual patient simulations, virtual patients can effectively improve skills, including clinical reasoning, procedural skills, and a mix of procedural and team skills.2
Furthermore, telehealth is growing in popularity among patients, and its utilization has been increasing across the United States.3 In addition, mHealth found high patient and physician satisfaction and similar clinical outcomes, suggesting telehealth as a viable substitute for in-person care.4 It is a valuable opportunity to practice these skills in a virtual environment, preparing clinicians for virtual consultations.
The Virtual Health Center revolutionizes clinical education. It replicates real-world scenarios in a simulated clinical learning environment where you can safely practice applying your skills. Each virtual client reflects a common condition seen by practicing nutritionists, and each encounter helps you hone your knowledge, skills, and ability, enabling you to navigate complex, real-world clinical challenges with confidence. Moreover, it fosters inclusivity, preparing students to serve diverse populations effectively.
Virtual Grand Rounds facilitate experiential learning, offering insights from diverse perspectives and cutting-edge research, nurturing your clinical skills, and encouraging collaborative learning. Meanwhile, Case Management Plans serve as invaluable roadmaps that you can draw on in your future practice.
Your virtual supervising clinician will guide you through each client case and ensure you are capturing key clinical information in your chart notes while directing you to supplemental readings and resources.
Each virtual client has a unique situation and story to tell. You will review their paperwork to prepare for each client, including a new client intake form, a 3-day diet diary, and a laboratory report.
After reviewing the unique case and intake forms, you will interact with your virtual client. Your client will walk you through their health challenges, and you will make decisions on the best course of action to support their needs using evidence-based clinical nutrition recommendations.
As you work through the case, you will complete interactive embedded assessments with questions related to each case. These assessments are an excellent opportunity to review, synthesize, and solidify your understanding of key topics from throughout your program.
At the end of each client case, you will put together a final Case Management Plan just as you would do in real life clinical nutrition practice.
The Virtual Health Center Experience received an important recognition by The Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists (BCNS) by contributing to the remarkable 349 hours that the MSCN program is approved for CNS candidates to apply toward the Supervised Practice Experience (SPE).
Your virtual supervising clinician will guide you through each client case and ensure you are capturing key clinical information in your chart notes while directing you to supplemental readings and resources.
Each virtual client has a unique situation and story to tell. You will review their paperwork to prepare for each client, including a new client intake form, a 3-day diet diary, and a laboratory report.
After reviewing the unique case and intake forms, you will interact with your virtual client. Your client will walk you through their health challenges, and you will make decisions on the best course of action to support their needs using evidence-based clinical nutrition recommendations.
As you work through the case, you will complete interactive embedded assessments with questions related to each case. These assessments are an excellent opportunity to review, synthesize, and solidify your understanding of key topics from throughout your program.
At the end of each client case, you will put together a final Case Management Plan just as you would do in real life clinical nutrition practice.
The Virtual Health Center Experience received an important recognition by The Board for Certification of Nutrition Specialists (BCNS) by contributing to the remarkable 349 hours that the MSCN program is approved for CNS candidates to apply toward the Supervised Practice Experience (SPE).
The Sonoran University of Health Sciences Virtual Health Center is a transformative platform, revolutionizing clinical education and empowering future clinical nutritionists to excel in their careers. Through immersive simulations and experiential learning opportunities, it prepares students to navigate the complexities of real-world patient care with confidence and compassion.
2140 E. Broadway Rd. Tempe, AZ 85282
(480)858-9100
online@sonoran.edu
