03-08-2026 How can Healthcare students prepare to deal with aggressive patients or potential safety hazards? Thanks to AI, vocational students are able to encounter rare incidents and learn how to act under stress. AI enables students to engage with scenarios typical of professional practice, yet unlikely to occur during their internships.
One example is the Experience LAB at the ROC van Amsterdam. In the Experience Lab, students learn to apply their theoretical knowledge in a so-called ‘experience loop’. In the laboratory environment, equipped as a fully operational laboratory, they conduct tests, analyses samples, reads results and makes decisions based on their findings. Based on the students’ actions and decisions, AI shapes the outcomes to create a unique patient story.
A further step is to combine Virtual Reality (VR) with AI to generate a sensory environment in which students can practise their skills. In 2025, a promising project, ‘Talk2Care’, received a grant awarded to a teacher at HZ University of Applied Sciences to develop an AI-powered Virtual Reality (VR) application for healthcare students. In the VR/AI application ‘Talk2Care, students practice interview techniques in a virtual environment with virtual, AI-powered patients.
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ReferNet Netherlands, & Cedefop (2026, August 3rd). Netherlands: AI Simulates Real-life Situations. National news on VET.
Each year ECBO, as partner in the ReferNet network, publishes three articles to inform European partners on VET news in the Netherlands.