Building a Handoff Communication Virtual Experience for Nursing Students Using Virtual Humans

Abstract

Effective communication among healthcare professionals is critical to delivering safe, high-quality patient care. One important real-world skill that nursing students must acquire is generating accurate handoff communication reports. The central aim of this study was to build, assess, and revise a virtual experience simulation that allows nursing students to observe a standardized clinical situation in an immersive environment and then practice the situation-background-assessment-recommendation communication method. This between-groups experimental study, which was modified in light of COVID-19 concerns, evaluated how well 69 prelicensure nursing students understood a handoff communication report after viewing a virtual human patient and nurse interact during a triage assessment scenario. Results indicate student comprehension levels did not differ based on which of two metacognitive learning strategies was used. Participants in both study groups were able to accurately complete a situation-background-assessment-recommendation instrument based on the virtual experience. Further, they believed that watching a virtual nurse perform a triage assessment would help them perform one themselves in a similar virtual environment. There was also an unexpected study finding related to patient safety within the context of the simulation. This finding warrants further research that will lead to revision of the virtual experience used to train future nurses.

Effectiveness of the Use of Animation and Gamification in Online Distance Education During Pandemic

“…Nurse educators, dealing with increasingly more tired and unmotivated students in this period, clearly saw the need to develop new strategies. 8,9,27,28 The results of our study using animation and gamification methods with the generation Z nursing students who were in fact born into technology showed that the use of animation and gamification in online distance learning in nursing students increased their knowledge as well as motivation. [29][30][31] There have been reports of positive cognitive outcomes achieved in learners with the inclusion of technology in teaching methods.…”

Systematic Bibliometric Analysis of Research Hotspots and Trends on the Application of Virtual Reality in Nursing

“…Virtual reality nursing related systems transfer health care knowledge, which can be applied in schools, practice bases, and clinical practice. Virtual humans can be built in a virtual world to show anatomical knowledge or develop nurse-patient communication skills ( 20 , 21 ). Various types of operational training, such as catheterization or tracheal insertion ( 22 , 23 ), can be realized using the same virtual scene as in an actual laboratory.…”

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Neonatal Nursing Practicum and Extended Reality Simulation Training Needs: A Descriptive and Cross-Sectional Study

“…In a qualitative needs assessment of NICU training, Koo and Lee [4] reported that students needed substantial handoff observation and practice. Therefore, providing systematic handoff training through undergraduate nursing education to enhance the ability of nursing students to accurately communicate among medical staff is necessary [29].…”