Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality to Improve Learning Outcomes in Nursing Degree Students: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Student summary

Why This Research Matters

This article describes a clinical trial designed to explore the effectiveness of immersive virtual reality (VR) as a teaching tool for nursing students. The main question is whether using VR, specifically for learning basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and patient examination skills, leads to better learning outcomes compared to traditional classroom-based simulation methods.

The study focuses on fourth-year nursing degree students at a public university. These are the individuals who will be directly involved in this research. The authors frame the nursing problem as finding innovative ways to enhance student learning experiences, particularly for practical skills like CPR and patient examination. They suggest that VR might offer advantages beyond traditional methods.

As an undergraduate nursing student, you should appraise several aspects of this study when it is completed: 1. **Hypothesis:** The abstract states the hypothesis: "Teaching using VR...will not result in differences in knowledge and skill acquisition compared to traditional classroom-based simulation teaching (control group), but it will lead to greater satisfaction and self-confidence." This means they expect no difference in actual learning outcomes between groups, but anticipate that students who use VR might feel more satisfied with their learning experience or be more confident in their abilities. 2. **Methodology:** The study is a randomized clinical trial (RCT), which is considered a strong research design for comparing interventions. It's an open-label RCT, meaning participants and instructors know who gets what intervention. This can introduce bias but is common in educational trials where blinding is difficult. Participants are assigned based on their usual teaching groups (6-8 students per instructor) to ensure that the VR experience is delivered consistently within these smaller units. 3. **Interventions:** The control group receives standard classroom-based simulation teaching. The experimental group receives this same traditional method *combined* with VR headset teaching for CPR and patient examination. This means both groups get some form of simulation, but one gets an additional VR component. 4. **Outcomes Measured:** The study will measure knowledge (likely through tests), skill acquisition (assessed by observing students perform tasks like CPR or examinations), satisfaction (perhaps via surveys asking about their experience with the teaching method), and self-confidence (again, likely assessed through questionnaires). 5. **Reporting Standards:** The authors mention they will follow the CONSORT checklist to report the study. This is a set of guidelines for reporting RCTs transparently.

When considering how a nurse would reason from this evidence once it's available: * If VR does not lead to better knowledge or skills but increases satisfaction and confidence, nurses might consider using VR as an adjunct tool if students report enjoying the experience more. This could potentially improve engagement with learning materials even if direct skill acquisition isn't enhanced. * The study is designed to show equivalence in core outcomes (knowledge/skills) while highlighting potential benefits in student perception. As a future nurse, you'd want to understand both what skills are being taught and how students feel about their training methods.

It's important to remember that this trial has not yet begun recruiting participants as of the publication date mentioned (2025-03-05). The abstract outlines its design. Therefore, any conclusions drawn from it will be based on what is *planned* or anticipated by the researchers at this stage.

Regarding source and rights: This record comes from ClinicalTrials.gov, which is a public registry for clinical trials. It's important to verify information directly from such registries as they are primary sources of trial data. The copyright notice indicates it's metadata from ClinicalTrials.gov. Since there's no DOI or specific journal name provided in the abstract itself (though keywords mention

Faculty notes

Educational Relevance

Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality to Improve Learning Outcomes in Nursing Degree Students: A Randomized Clinical Trial can be used for source-grounded discussion. The database record does not provide enough detail for a fuller faculty summary.