Use of Virtual Simulations in Maternity Nursing

This paper explores integrating virtual simulation into an existing curriculum to manage obstetric emergencies in nursing and offers ways to develop and enhance current teaching strategies. Virtual simulations can offer realistic and engaging simulations of any clinical condition, including cases that seldom appear in the clinical site. In this way, VRSs can offer practice for lifelong learning and be a successful educational model for nursing students. Quality clinical education is a core requirement in the nursing curriculum. Pre-licensure nursing students rarely have opportunities to manage obstetric emergencies in nursing even though lack of this exposure to situations may lead to poor patient outcomes. The study employed a mixed-methods design using a descriptive, quantitative, and descriptive-qualitative approach. The study reported the preference and perceived learning outcomes of undergraduate students who engaged in a virtual simulation experience. Results from the survey and student evaluation indicated that students had an overall positive experience. Online virtual reality sessions can offer a time-efficient and cost-effective approach to teaching crucial, often high-stakes, communication skills in a safe environment. Student feedback indicated that this VRS experience was highly valuable. The virtual simulation sessions provided a flexible, engaging experience to develop critical thinking skills and were evaluated as highly satisfactory and easy to navigate. A more massive, multisite repetition of the study would be helpful. Surveying various programs, including graduate studies and RN to BSN programs, might yield different results.