Development of an Interactive 3D Visualization Tutorial for Pathophysiology in Graduate Nursing Education

Abstract

Background: A recent revision to the Nurse Practitioner Role Core Competencies will lead to robust changes in graduate education. Incorporating innovative technology into the core courses of advanced practice nursing will prepare practice-ready providers with a high level of competence leading to successful health outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and decreased health care costs. Problem: Graduate education lacks effective, innovative, and interactive visualization tools to study pathophysiology. There is a lack of evidence for the use of 3-dimensional (3D) augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality in advanced practice core courses. Approach: A collaborative iterative approach was used to design, develop, analyze, update, and reiterate a 3D AR tutorial for advanced pathophysiology. Outcomes: Students had a positive experience and perceive 3D AR as a learning tool that can increase examination scores. The visualization connected the pathophysiologic process of a disease to the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, and associated treatments. Conclusions: 3D AR tutorials are an effective solution to facilitate learning difficult concepts in pathophysiology by incorporating multiple learning techniques: visual, aural, verbal, kinesthetic, and logical.