I really try my best to keep this blog focused against topics of which I have at least a bit of understanding.  Let's be honest, I need to stick with stuff I know.  I can't make up for a lack of substance with verbal - er, written - gymnastics (see?).  My vocabulary stinks and my prose probably annoys the hell out of the Grammar Curmudgeon.  So I'm sitting here staring at a screen with a lot of white space trying to figure out how to start writing about the virtual reality world called Second Life (where I am a novice!) and what it means for the Nursing community.  I know there's something here, but where do I begin?

I guess I'll start with what I know:
Second Life is a 3-D virtual reality world accessed through the internet that is defined by its users.   Every day, thousands of people visit this world and create Avatars, which are basically characters created by the user to explore the online environment.  Your Avatars can explore huge spaces in the virtual world, including shopping  malls, carnivals, clubs, homes and cities.  He or She (or It!) can meet new people and join groups.  Some people buy virtual land within the world and create businesses on their property with the goal of attracting people to their parcel.  Many people even make real money selling 'virtual goods' to other Avatars for real cash.

Never mind...that probably doesn't do it justice - check out this article and this one - they do a much better job of explaining whats up.  Or check out the clip below.  (Hopefully you can stomach the incredibly annoying voice.)

For the Nursing community, Second Life (SL) offers some intriguing current and future applications.  For starters, it's easy to join the world, create your Avatar, and link up with other Nurses through groups.  Even now, there are dozens of Nursing groups in SL.  From my experience, the SL Nursing groups are just a patchwork of people who share a common interest or occupation; there are no organized meetings or collaborative share groups.

That will likely change quickly, as do most things in SL.  The near future will bring about SL Nursing communities that share ideas, best practices and stories.  User-developed virtual hospitals already exist - soon Nurses will visit the hospitals and practice taking care of patients, simulating real-life scenarios.  Don't believe it?  Check out this clip showing what's already going on right now:

(You can find more of these demos on YouTube.)

Pretty neat stuff.  Who knows where this will go in the future - the possibilities are endless.  Instead of getting continuing education credits online, you might visit a virtual simulation or classroom.  Universities might use SL as part of the curriculum, helping teach students to deal with difficult patient situations.  Hospitals will likely have a virtual version of their facility on SL and you could 'test drive' working on their unit prior to accepting a job in the Real World.  New technologies may be introduced into the virtual world and reviewed by RNs prior to being installed or incorporated into Units in the Real World.

As a Nurse, it's worth knowing about this and understanding how it could affect your job in the future.  Even if just for a little while, go sign up (it's free) and look around.  Right now - at least from my perspective - SL is difficult to navigate and accomplish much.  It's impossible, though, to not be impressed and be excited about where the technology might take us in the future.

By the way, if you do join, look me up and say hello:  MikeD396 Meredith.  My Avatar, below, is not as flashy and fancy as some of what I see in SL, but he'll get better.  Right now he's basically a total disaster - I don't really know what to do with him.  He mostly just stands around like a big lummox.  But I'll work on him and try to make him cool.  



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