How Does Human-Centred Extended Reality Support Healthcare Students’ Learning in Clinical Conditions?

Abstract

Healthcare education needs to be reformed to sustain quality, faster response to crises and ensure a rapid and efficient graduation path for future healthcare professionals. In this study, our multidisciplinary team has developed and tested a Human-centred extended reality (XR) to solve challenges in healthcare by connecting humans to technology in a human-centred, ethical way and by empowering end users through social innovation. In our study, we aimed to develop an intuitive XR virtual simulation environment with realistic scenarios and metahuman avatars, enabling team interaction to test and analyse participants’ real-time adaptation through a combination of neurophysiological and behavioural data collected by wearable sensors. This novel research offers a solution to complement clinical placements of nursing and medical students and ensure that students achieve the required competencies even if unexpected situations or crises threaten to interrupt the practice of competencies in real-life environments. Furthermore, by utilising the neurophysiological data, we can assess the learning event based on analysis of the recorded signals. The XR solutions can reduce nursing and medical students’ stress levels and enhance their resilience to work effectively in collaborative interprofessional teams.