By Marie Gross
Each semester BYU nursing students gain empathy for psychiatric patients after participating in a voice simulation where they experience auditory hallucinations as part of their clinical training.
Training takes place at Utah State Hospital. Students take a tape player and, for 45 minutes, attempt to accomplish different tasks while listening through headphones to voices and sounds similar to what someone experiencing auditory hallucinations might hear.
Voices on these tapes range from nice to derogatory. Students may also hear clicking noises or music, all of which a person experiencing auditory hallucinations cannot control.
Patsy Ellinger, a BYU nursing professor, said the exercise is meant to help students become more compassionate toward patients with psychotic symptoms such as auditory hallucinations. These patients can''t simply turn down the volume or pause the voices like the students can, Ellinger said.
'The compassion helps students understand that they need to consider that a patient truly is having discomfort,' Ellinger said.
While listening to the tape recordings, students are required to complete three different tasks. First, they must take a test on selected reading materials. Next, they must follow instructions on how to make shapes out of toothpicks. Finally, students take a mental status exam where they are asked basic questions, such as the date or the names of presidents of the United States.
Whitney O'' Reilly, a nursing major from Redlands, Calif., said she found the simulation more disturbing than expected.
'They cuss you out,' O''Reilly said. 'There is evil laughter and voices that you can''t understand. It''s almost demonic.'
Ellinger receives various feedback from students about the voice simulation.
'Somebody mentioned that if you keep hearing how dumb and stupid you are all the time it would certainly make your self-esteem go down, plus you give up and you don''t even want to try,' Ellinger said.
O''Reilly said some of the students had to turn off the headphones, and others were crying from the simulation.
Ellinger said some students are uncomfortable with the swearing, and she hates to see them have to listen. But she also wants them to see the reality of hallucinations.
Dallas Irnshaw, assistant clinical director at Utah State Hospital, said the voice training has been a part of the curriculum for about five years. National Empowerment Center Inc. developed the training.
The mission of the National Empowerment Center Inc., run by consumers, survivors and ex-patients, is to carry a message of recovery, empowerment, hope and healing to people diagnosed with mental illness. The voice simulations students hear are put together by people who have had auditory hallucinations.
'Those of us that went through it the first time were impressed with the impact it had on us,' Irnshaw said. 'It opened our eyes to something we couldn''t understand.'
Irnshaw said he knows of other virtual reality programs similar to the voice training where one can actually see visual hallucinations, but due to the expense, the hospital has not purchased them yet.