Faculty Driven Virtual Reality (VR) Scenarios and Students Perception of Immersive VR in Nursing Education: A Pilot Study

Innovative nursing education methods became essential due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) education offers nursing students authentic patient encounters in a realistic simulated environment. A pilot study was conducted to identify nursing education clinical scenarios that should be developed for immersive VR and to assess students’ perception of immersive VR in education. We formed a focus group composed of nursing faculty (N=10) with expertise in the clinical setting and simulation. Faculty participants identified important topics and aspects of immersive VR scenarios during focus group discussions. We assessed nursing student participants’ (N=11) perception of immersive VR in nursing education using a VR game (Anatomy Explorer 2020). Most student participants indicated that a VR game was immersive and realistic and recommended using immersive VR to learn clinical nursing skills. Realistic immersive VR clinical education scenarios could result in effective clinical nursing education.