Using immersive reality in training nursing students

Every nursing student is trained to possess certain skills and qualities before they go for the clinical training in a hospital. They must be very competent in all the fundamental nursing skills including reporting vital signs of a patient, techniques for different kinds of injection methods and simple wound dressing. They should be familiar with a hospital ward environment. This paper introduces the use of immersive reality including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for nurse training. With these new technologies, nursing students can practise their nursing skills by visualising a clinical environment at anytime and anywhere. It also provides a platform for the clinical simulations of a number of scenarios where students have to carry out routine tasks and practices. For learning the fundamental nursing skills, students can practise the special skills over the 3D models in an immersive way. Our application can reduce inexperienced nursing students' anxiety and make them more familiar with the ward environment and the fundamental nursing skill, which can then minimise medical error in their real practicum.