Addressing the (virtual) crowd

a screenshot of the point of view the user sees when they use the VirtualSpeech app on their phones with a headset. The view is warped so that it looks like a 3D image from the user’s perspective. They stand on a stage in front of a crowd of seated people who watch the viewer expectantly.
By Christopher Austin

Military medical education is about putting students through the toughest situations they could ever face in the most realistic ways possible. But it’s not just combat and emergency response simulations that they’re going through, it’s also public speaking.

Facing down a large crowd is no easy feat. You can lose track of what you’re saying, stammer, or lose the audience’s attention very easily. It’s better to work out those issues in a simulated environment than work through them for the first time at an important meeting.

Students at the Uniformed Services University of theHealth Sciences (USU) are using virtual reality (VR) headsets made from off-the-shelf headsets with their phones and the VirtualSpeech app to help them practice public speaking techniques.

When they put on their headsets, students can find themselves thrown into several scenarios including interviews, presentations, lectures or meetings. Each scenario features actors as audience members who may be attentive, disinterested, or even hostile to the speaker, just like real audiences.

“I didn’t even know the app existed… [It] provided a very surreal experience in preparing and practicing presentations,” said Air Force 2nd Lt. Helal Syed, a student from the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine (SOM) who used the app as part of a course exercise. “I wish I had known about it earlier, since fourth-year rotations generally involve giving presentations.”

Three students use VR headsets in a classroom
Students get accustomed to the virtual reality headsets that they’ll use to practice public speaking techniques as part of the Media Communications in Health Care course. (Image Credit: Navy Capt. (Dr.) Gregory Gorman)
The exercise is part of the public speaking section of the Media Communications in Health Care post-clerkship elective for students in the SOM and Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing (GSN). Conceived by Army Col. (Dr.) Jeff Hutchinson, associate dean of the SOM, the course aims to improve student’s understanding and uses of the media available to them.

Hutchinson was inspired to design the course after seeing large gaps in the levels of communication proficiency among health professionals. He knows from his own personal experience that some situations are easier to perform in than others, but professionals must be prepared to communicate effectively when the need arises.

Early in their careers, military health care professionals are expected to be teachers, said Navy Capt. (Dr.) Gregory Gorman, associate professor of Pediatrics at USU, and director of the National Capital Consortium Pediatrics program. They must be able to communicate not just with patients, but with small groups during rounds, large department groups, and over the phone. He taught the public speaking section of the course

Hutchinson believes that the benefit of using this technology is that it gets students exposed to performing for large groups of people. The best way to get someone comfortable with public speaking is to desensitize them to it.

In addition to public speaking, the course also dives into subjects like YouTube, podcasts and social media, which Hutchinson and Gorman agree is important for military medical professionals as a tool for communicating with their peers and patients, and can be used to increase exposure for published research.