Effects of a Patient Experience–Based Virtual Reality Blended Learning Program on Nursing Students

Abstract

When provided with opportunities to view the world from the patients' perspective, nursing students can experience the same practical occurrences and feelings that patients encounter, consequently becoming more aware of their discomfort and pain. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the patient experience virtual reality blended learning program developed for nursing students. This study is significant in that it presents a program that enables nursing students to not only experience being perioperative patients themselves but also experience their conditions in places other than hospitals, which are generally used as training locations. The analytical results of this study indicated that nursing students who virtually experienced the conditions of perioperative patients through virtual reality blended learning showed increased levels of empathy, positive attitudes toward patient safety treatment, confidence in nursing care, and clinical skill performance. The developed program in this study blended various teaching methods with a virtual reality platform to help junior nursing students with practical and effective perioperative training increase their levels of empathy by simulating the experiences and perspectives of perioperative patients.

Artificial intelligence technologies and compassion in healthcare: A systematic scoping review

“…There is good evidence that immersive VR experiences that simulate patient experiences of illness can help healthcare professionals to understand what it is like to have a specific disease or health need ( Brydon et al, 2021 ; Demarinis, 2022 ), which may translate into empathetic response or relational behaviors. For example, nursing students who virtually experienced the conditions of perioperative patients through VR blended learning showed increased levels of empathy, positive attitudes toward patient safety treatment, confidence in nursing care, and improved clinical skill performance ( Kim and Chun, 2022 ). Multiple evaluation studies into the effects of immersive simulation for dementia suggest that an VR experience can simulate a range of aspects of dementia so that students can develop empathetic understanding ( Ball et al, 2015 ; Slater et al, 2019 ; Hirt and Beer, 2020 ; Sung et al, 2022 ).…”

Use and Effectiveness of Innovative Virtual Reality Application in Teaching Fetal Development

“…In their study involving 82 students, Kim and Chun 4 aimed to evaluate the performance of the patient who experienced the VR blended learning program developed for nursing students. It has been seen that the VR program used is an effective method.…”

“…Virtual reality applications will contribute to individual and lifelong learning by bringing different perspectives to education. It has been observed that entering the environment, which is challenging to learn or impossible to implement, by simulating with VR, increases the quality of the course, the student's attitude toward the system, and the motivation of the course 2–6 …”

Immersing healthcare students in a virtual reality Parkinson's disease experience

“…5 Virtual reality (VR) offers an educational platform to engage learners in a variety experiences, including situations that could not be experienced otherwise like patients' viewpoints. [6][7][8] Several studies have described positive outcomes like improvement in participants' perspectives and empathy development using VR experiences [6][7][8] and illustrated the use of VR for the purposes of rehabilitation in patients with Parkinson's disease. 9 However, the development and analysis of an immersive VR Parkinson's disease experience has yet to be described in an interprofessional context.…”