Right now the term “avatar” conjures up an image of James Cameron’s major motion picture. We’re asking you to shift gears and picture an avatar of another type—an ER nurse in crisp blue hospital scrubs, beating a path to triage where inclement weather and flu outbreak are creating a real pressure cooker—one that demands quick, prudent decision making on the part of ER nurses and doctors alike. For healthcare professionals working in ER nursing jobs this could be an ordinary day—or it could be a virtual training session that takes place on a computer. With a new millennium now well underway, hospitals are taking advantage of high tech software called “Second Life”, an online community computer program where participants create their own avatars and manipulate them using headsets, the keyboard and computer mouse. Training sessions mean you work inside virtual clinics and participate in their training drills. The possibilities are endless and the cost, surprisingly low. In fact, the software garnered the interest of Stanford and the University of Michigan, where medical training and education in the virtual world drove two very well-attended workshops. Why is the medical community so excited? Because costs in training hospital staff used to cost tens of [+]