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New advances in technology have brought challenges and opportunities for education and instructional methods. Compared with traditional education, the increased use of technology-enhanced blended learning in healthcare and nursing education requires students to take more responsibility for their learning. The use of advanced technology has resulted in independent learning skills becoming increasingly important. Many studies have reported a positive correlation between independent learning and success rates in an e-learning environment. This paper focuses on the potential contribution of augmented reality, which superimposes layers of virtual content on real physical objects. The paper initially presents a narrative literature review to identify augmented reality's strengths and challenges in facilitating independent learning and highlights several potential approaches for utilizing augmented reality in nursing education. However, it also reveals a lack of studies integrating augmented reality and independent learning theories such as self-regulated learning. The paper then addresses this gap by proposing a new learning approach to support independent learning.