Development and evaluation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation nursing education program for nursing students using virtual reality.

Background: This study aims to improve nursing students' ability to care for critically ill patients through education in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) nursing. Methods: This study developed a virtual reality (VR) simulation program for the five-step ECMO nursing of the Analysis, Design, Development, Implement, and Evaluation (ADDIE) model and used an equivalent control group pre-test and post-test no-synchronized design to verify the effect. The participants of this study were fourth-year nursing students enrolled in nursing departments at three universities in Seoul, Gangwon, and Gyeonggi in South Korea; it included 66 participants, 33 in each of the experimental and control groups. The program consisted of pre-training, orientation, VR simulation, and debriefing. Results: The interaction effect of the intervention and control groups with time points using the ECMO nursing VR simulation program was rejected due to no statistically significant difference in knowledge (F = 1.41, p =.251), confidence (F = 1.97, p =.144), and clinical reasoning capacity (F = 2.85, p =.061). However, learning immersion (t = 3.97, p <.001) and learning satisfaction (t = 4.25, p <.001) were statistically significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion: VR simulation program for ECMO nursing developed in this study is a potential educational method that positively affects the learning immersion and learning satisfaction of nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]