The Future of Virtual Reality in Nursing Education

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology with many applications, and it’s proven especially useful to nursing education. In recent years, VR techniques have helped optimize teaching and learning processes, allowing students to gain clinical experience in virtual settings. Purdue Global uses innovative VR technology to help nursing students develop skills required in real-world clinical practice.

To understand the role VR can and will play in nursing education, we spoke to three faculty members from the Purdue Global School of Nursing:

• Jessica Manning, DNP, senior manager of immersive learning
• Michele McMahon, DNP, associate dean of teaching and learning
• Abbey Elliott, DNP, assistant dean of innovation and wellness

What Is the Role of VR in Nursing Education?

According to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), virtual reality is “the use of computer technology to create an interactive three-dimensional (3D) world in which users have a sense of spatial presence.” It provides a first-person active learning experience, which is often referred to as a virtual simulation.

This involves “immersive, highly visual, 3D characteristics to replicate real-life situations and health care procedures.” It can incorporate physical interfaces such as a computer keyboard, mouse, speech/voice recognition, motion sensors, or haptic devices. As an educational tool, a VR simulation can help optimize teaching processes and provide students with realistic opportunities to practice skills learned in theory.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 65% of nursing education programs were already using virtual simulation, while nearly half expected to use VR within 5 years. As Elliott explains, the pandemic accelerated VR adoption when institutions sought alternatives to in-person clinical experiences.

“Since then, VR has continued to expand as schools recognize its value in providing consistent, controlled, and safe environments for clinical training,” Elliott says. “VR simulations are now more realistic and immersive, with improved graphics, tactile feedback, and AI-driven scenarios that allow students to practice complex procedures, decision-making, and critical-thinking skills.”

VR and the Nursing Shortage

VR technology has become especially relevant given the national nursing shortage. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects more than 194,000 openings for registered nurses annually through 2033.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, several barriers have affected the nursing shortage, particularly those related to nurse training. These challenges include a lack of resources, such as faculty, clinical sites, and classroom space.

However, Elliott says VR could be a valuable tool in addressing some of these challenges. Not only can it streamline nursing education and improve training efficiency, but it can also increase workforce readiness.

“VR allows nursing programs to offer immersive clinical experiences without relying on limited real-world placements,” Elliott explains. “This can expedite training timelines, helping programs graduate new nurses faster without compromising quality. As VR offers controlled and repeatable scenarios, students can develop competencies and confidence more quickly, potentially reducing the time needed in traditional clinical settings.

“Nursing faculty shortages limit student intake capacity at many institutions. VR can ease some of this burden by automating aspects of clinical training and allowing for more self-directed learning,” she adds. “With VR simulations, faculty can supervise more students remotely and offer individualized feedback based on each student’s simulation performance. This can free up faculty time, making it easier to educate a larger number of students effectively.”

How Do Nursing Students Use VR?

Improving Clinical Skills

According to Elliott, virtual simulations help nursing students practice clinical skills in a controlled environment, which is particularly useful for complex or high-stakes patient care. Manning adds that the specific nursing skills students learn through VR can vary, but they may include:

• Catheter insertion
• IV placement
• Head-to-toe assessment
• Focused assessments
• Chest-tube placement
• Intubation

“In addition, depending on the level of learner, there is scenario-based learning that can incorporate skills, assessment, communication, disease processes, diagnosing, and care planning,” says Manning.

The BMC Medical Education journal states educators can also use VR technology to create accurate anatomical models without any need for real cadavers. Nurse learners can use such a model to understand complex anatomical structures with a higher level of motivation and tolerable adverse effects, especially early in their learning experience.

Enhancing Communication Skills

Effective communication is vital to the practice of nursing. It not only helps build a therapeutic relationship with patients but can also minimize treatment errors and improve the quality of patient care. By simulating real-world scenarios through immersive learning, nursing educators can help students hone their communication skills and prepare them for clinical rotations.

In Australia, researchers found VR-based clinical simulation to be “particularly useful in situations such as dealing with aggressive patients as it protects the health professional’s safety and allows them to take a ‘trial and error’ approach to learning how to respond in these situations.” VR training enables students to work with virtual patient encounters. This allows them to practice de-escalation techniques and other skills through repetition.

The Benefits of Virtual Reality in Nursing Education

There are many reasons for nursing educators to employ VR technology. Among the top reasons are to provide more diverse clinical experiences, increase patient safety, offer individualized feedback, facilitate distance learning, and lower costs.

Diverse Clinical Experience

VR gives nursing students a chance to practice solving problems they may encounter in real-world clinical settings. For example, at Purdue Global, they can gradually become more confident performing certain tasks through multi-modal immersive learning.

Manning says that students aren’t guaranteed exposure to all procedures in a traditional environment, nor might they manage patients with various diagnoses. However, VR-based clinical simulation has the depth to mirror real-world experiences.

“Immersive virtual reality gives students wide exposure and unlimited attempts to practice and navigate desired skills,” Manning says.

Learn more about how online nursing degree programs work at Purdue Global.

Patient Safety

Nursing students can also practice rare, challenging, costly, and complex interventions in VR settings. These simulations provide students the opportunity to perform high-risk interventions and gain experience without jeopardizing the safety of real patients.

“We can give our students all of these opportunities in virtual reality before they work in the clinical units and have to work on live people,” Elliott says. “New graduates often report feeling underprepared for real-world practice, which can contribute to errors and reduce patient care quality. VR can better equip nurses with clinical skills, critical-thinking abilities, and decision-making confidence, [which can help] enhance patient safety outcomes.”

Individualized Feedback

Elliott says virtual reality also allows nurse educators to evaluate students on a more personalized basis.

“Through virtual reality, we can make sure students are effective and competent,” Elliott says. “As they work through these VR learning experiences, we use analytics to monitor their progress."

Modern VR systems often include advanced features that track student performance and provide personalized feedback. This allows educators to observe students’ actions during simulations, identify areas of improvement, and tailor learning experiences accordingly. As Elliott explains, this objective feedback is invaluable for assessing competencies and readiness for real-world practice.

Distance Learning

VR can make learning opportunities more accessible. Research published in BMC Nursing supports this argument, claiming that “virtual simulations are more scalable, allowing a larger number of students to be served simultaneously and to be used in further studies.

“VR simulations can be accessed remotely, offering flexibility for students, and making them more convenient for students who may not have easy access to physical simulation labs. This can save time and eliminate the need for travel.”

Incorporating VR helps combat the nursing shortage and can relieve strain on student nurses and working nurses alike.

“Before the pandemic, our acute care students were required to fly to a prelicensure campus to complete a face-to-face acute care skills lab where they could practice intubation, central line placements, suturing, and other skills that they would need postgraduation,” McMahon says.

Now, Purdue Global students have 24/7 access to virtual reality nursing education. According to Elliott, VR enables students in rural or remote locations to participate in high-quality, realistic virtual training without traveling to urban centers.

Cost Efficiency

VR is also more cost-effective compared to the price of high-fidelity manikins. VR simulations can also be used exclusively for clinical training, saving institutions the cost of the simulation equipment and lab space. For students, this helps save time and money that would otherwise be spent on travel.

How Effective Is Virtual Reality in Nursing Education?

“There has been a growing body of research supporting VR as an effective tool for nursing education, particularly in building clinical confidence, reducing errors, and enhancing knowledge retention,” Elliott states. “Studies are increasingly showing positive outcomes, leading to more widespread acceptance in academic and clinical settings.”

A study published in Nurse Education Today specifically evaluated the effects of VR on clinical decision-making. According to the research, VR generated positive results in teaching and enhancing several cognitive skills in undergraduate nursing students.

Moreover, a separate study tested VR’s impact on students’ satisfaction, self-confidence, and performance. It concluded that VR simulation showed a statistically significant improvement in all three measures.

VR also enables student nurses to actively engage and immerse themselves, helping to conceptualize entire procedures. As one study found, nurses are receptive to the use of technology for training because it provides opportunities to enhance clinical knowledge through self-regulatory and experiential learning.

“Research on VR’s impact on long-term skill retention and competency is still evolving, but early studies are promising,” Elliott says. “This evidence could further support VR adoption in nursing curricula. As more research emerges, VR may become an essential part of national nursing education standards, allowing for more systematic use of simulations and potentially reducing the clinical hours required for graduation.”

At Purdue Global, the school’s prelicensure nursing program has seen a 10% increase in NCLEX-RN® pass rates since implementing VR, according to Elliott. Also, when asked whether they feel virtual patient scenarios helped prepare them for clinical practice, 92% of students said yes.

What’s the Future of Virtual Reality Nursing Education?

VR is likely to bring even more innovation, realism, and personalization in the future, according to Elliott. She especially sees artificial intelligence becoming a significant tool, noting how it allows VR simulations to adapt dynamically to the learner’s individual experience.

“For example, if a nursing student hesitates during a decision-making scenario, AI could adjust the simulation to challenge them with increasingly complex situations, which can help build their confidence gradually,” Elliott says. “This type of personalized learning experience could become a powerful tool to ensure that every student meets competency standards before entering clinical practice.”

Elliott also expects VR to move beyond visual and auditory stimulation toward haptic feedback and other sensory elements.

“This will allow students to feel the resistance of a syringe, the human skin, or even the weight of medical tools,” she explains. “Haptic gloves or VR suits could make procedural training more realistic, such as learning to perform injections, CPR, or wound care.”

This enhanced sensory immersion, Elliott says, could create a more hands-on learning experience, helping students feel better prepared for the tactile aspects of patient care.

>>Learn more about AI and the other top 10 nursing trends.

Take the Next Step in Your Nurse Education

Purdue Global offers a range of online nursing degree programs for nurses at various stages of their careers. These include:

• Associate of Science in Nursing (for students in Iowa and Maine)
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing—RN-to-BSN
• Master of Science in Nursing
• Doctor of Nursing Practice

Learn more about degree plans, requirements, and schedules by contacting us today.