Using immersive virtual reality in critical care nursing education through virtual intensive care environment

Teaching effective nursing intervention to manage the common ventilator alarms and potential complications at the bedside with real patients is difficult among nursing students. As it may be due to logistic limitations, such as: limited space, patient number in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and potential risks in ICU. Students express their needs to learn and practice high-risk procedures and practice nursing care to critical ill patients in ICU setting. This study’s objectives were to 1) create an intensive care immersive virtual reality experience for postgraduate nursing students by incorporating a virtual mechanical ventilator into nursing education, 2) enhance their knowledge through IVR game-based simulation with guided practice for troubleshooting ventilator alarms and potential complications on mechanically ventilated patients, and 3) evaluate the perception of the students of the IVR experience based on the activities. This IVR experience is the outcome of using the User-reaction survey and theoretical framework in learning clinical reasoning through gaming. The investigation used quantitative methods for those who participated in the IVR ICU.