The educational needs of virtual reality simulation training for novice nurses’ adaptation to clinical practice: A mixed methods study

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the educational needs of virtual reality simulations that can be applied to novice nurses during the waiting period before starting work in a hospital.Methods: A convergent mixed methods was used. The survey data were collected from 230 novice nurses, and a focus group interview was conducted with 6 new nurses. The data were collected from November 2022 to January 2023. Descriptive statistics, a frequency analysis, independent t-test, and an Importance-Performance Analysis were performed using SPSS 24.0.Results: Appropriate topics for virtual reality simulation education were indicated to be medications and intravenous injections, which are high priority topics in quantitative and qualitative research. The novice nurses wanted group activity training three to four times a week for two weeks before beginning work in a hospital. They also wanted an immersive virtual reality system based on a real hospital environment.Conclusion: Based on the above results, this study provides basic data for the development of a virtual reality simulation education that can improve the adaptation of novice nurses to clinical practice. A strategy was suggested to utilize the waiting time before beginning work in a hospital as educational time.