Background: Virtual Reality (VR) was defined as a collection of technological devices: "a computer capable of interactive 3D visualization, a head-mounted display and data gloves equipped with one or more position trackers". Today, lots of scientists define VR as a simulation of the real world based on computer graphics, a three dimensional world in which communities of real people interact, create content, items and services, producing real economic value through e-Commerce.

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The COVID-19 emergency has led many health facilities to reorganize themselves in a very short time to meet the urgent needs for intensive, semi-intensive or ordinary care of SARS-CoV-2 patients. In this pandemic, characterized by speed of transmission and severity of respiratory symptoms, care has been affected by the increase in volume and clinical complexity of patients, the sudden and unpredictable staff decrease and the lack of support from family members / caregivers. At the same time, experience in the field has shown how “informal” resources have been activated, which enabled to treat the highest possible number of patients above the real availability of resources. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of nurses involved in frontline care (COVID Centers) during the pandemic with a particular focus on professional motivation and on the development of technical-professional and personal skills. A study with a qualitative research design using focus group technique was conducted. Two focus groups were held with nine nurses. Data were analyzed with inductive content analysis. The findings can be summarized in five main categories: professional identity; motivation and sense of mission; development of professional and personal skills; spirituality; person-centered care; uniqueness of the lived experience. These findings shed new light on the correlation between motivation, professional identity and value, sense of duty and sense of belonging to the professional group. Moreover, the experience in the COVID Centers represented a valuable opportunity for participants to rediscover some specific issues related to nursing professional identity and to develop new personal and technical-professional skills in a very short time. Finally, nurses experienced once again how the nurse-patient relationship and basic care are essential to provide effective and excellent care, even and especially for patients in critical conditions. Nurses re-discovered, in a careful body care and basic care, irreplaceable elements to give back to patients, often dying, their own dignity, and all the needed closeness and attention necessary also to compensate the absence of the loved ones. These elements represent a way to concretely and deeply express the ethics of a job well done in nursing.

The COVID-19 disease has dramatically changed lives worldwide, including education. This is a challenge for traditional learning. In fact, the European Higher Education Area poses the challenge of boosting the quality of teaching through active methodologies supported by digital pedagogy. Gamification is one of these tools and it has considerable attention in the healthcare literature. We aimed to create a game in the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital Foundation in order to offer continuing education on Quality and Clinical Risk procedures to our staff. The 2021 “Campus Game” (178 players) introduced the “Badge Challenge” (Team Building, Procedures, and Security) and 73 questions. The leaderboard of every single match was posted in some of the hospital’s strategic areas and also published online on the company intranet to ensure engagement and competitiveness. Gamification has spontaneously promoted teamworking and a virtuous process of multiprofessional education. We found that, during the Campus Game, there was a 4.9% increase in access to the intranet page containing information on Quality and Patient Safety and an 8% increase in access to the Hospital Policies and Procedures. In the near future, we wish to expand this game, involving hospitals with similar types of activity and levels of attention to quality and safety issues, and also to enhance the network of partners and the principles of Q&S management itself.

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