Effects of Virtual Reality Simulation Program Regarding High-risk Neonatal Infection Control on Nursing Students

Abstract

Virtual reality simulation can give nursing students a safe clinical experience involving highrisk infants where access to neonatal intensive care units is limited. This study aimed to examine the effects of a virtual reality simulation program on Korean nursing students' knowledge, performance selfefficacy and learner satisfaction. Methods: A nonequivalent control group design was applied. Senior nursing students were divided into an experimental group (n ¼ 25) experiencing virtual reality simulation and routine neonatal intensive care unit practice and a control group (n ¼ 25) having routine neonatal intensive care unit practice. The program consisted of three scenarios: basic care, feeding management and skin care and environmental management for prevention of neonatal infection. The total execution time for the three scenarios was 40 minutes. The simulation created immersive virtual reality experiences using a head-mounted display with hand-tracking technology. Data were collected from December 9, 2019, to January 17, 2020, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the t-test, paired t-tests, Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Results: Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in high-risk neonatal infection control performance self-efficacy (t ¼ À2.16, p ¼ .018) and learner satisfaction (t ¼ À5.59, p < .001). Conclusion:The virtual reality simulation program can expand the nursing students' practice experience in safe virtual spaces and enhance their performance self-efficacy and learning satisfaction.

Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Infection Control Simulation for Children With COVID-19: Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Nursing students need to experience nursing in actual clinical settings, but they get limited opportunities to personally observe and practice COVID-19-related infection control nursing, as well as acquire sufficient nursing skills. In particular, practicing pediatric nursing, including care of infants, is even more challenging due to the increased vulnerability of the child to infection [ 4 ]. Therefore, college instructors need to develop curricula to enable nursing students to cope with infectious diseases.…”

“…However, a large gathering of students should be avoided in the middle of a pandemic to avoid the risk of viral transmission, and thus, new training methods should be applied. Accordingly, nursing training programs using advanced technologies are being developed [ 5 ], including a growing trend in virtual reality (VR) [ 4 , 6 , 7 ].…”

“…Moreover, it is a user-centric learning method that does not depend on preparations, personnel, and schedule, while allowing the users to practice various clinical techniques within a safe environment, unlike conventional high-fidelity simulation [ 9 ]. A recent meta-analysis [ 10 ] and systematic review [ 11 ] indicated that the use of VR simulation has the potential to produce educational outcomes similar or superior to those of traditional simulation and reported the positive effects of VR on self-efficacy [ 4 , 12 ] and learning satisfaction [ 4 , 12 , 13 ] among nursing and medical students. Meanwhile, there are mixed results, too, showing that performance increased in the experimental group [ 12 - 14 ] or there was no difference between groups [ 15 ].…”

“…Yu et al [ 4 ] developed a VR program for high-risk neonatal infection control and applied it to nursing students. The results showed improved confidence in infection control among the students, indicating the applicability of VR simulation as a simulation-based training program for nursing students.…”

Factors Influencing Nursing Students’ Immersive Virtual Reality Media Technology-Based Learning

“…Accordingly, various studies have been conducted, such as an integrative review study centered on experimental research that was conducted from 2016 to 2019 to confirm the effect of nursing education using VR, and performance, self-confidence, and learning satisfaction were significantly improved [ 6 ]. In addition, a recent experimental study showed that the experimental group that performed VR simulations to provide safe clinical expiration of neonatal intensive care units with limited access to nursing students had a higher high-risk neural infrastructure self-efficacy and learner status than the control group [ 7 ].…”