Given these considerations, the objectives of this VRNURSE4KIDS project are: (1) to increase knowledge, competences and skills of nursing students towards VR as well as their intention and acceptance to use VR in clinical practice; (2) to increase awareness and attention towards VR among nursing students and lecturers, involved stakeholders in health care (education) and hospital partners; (3) to improve the quality of nursing education by structurally embedding the VR course in their program and integrating digital competences in the nursing education.
The VRNURSE4KIDS project involves partners in 4 European countries. Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that allows users to be fully immersed in a virtual world through a multisensory experience. It has been demonstrated that VR decreases pain, stress and anxiety in children during nursing procedures. Therefore VR has become increasingly applied in hospitals. We started from the observation that relatively few studies have assessed nurses’ health technology perceptions and acceptance. Hence it is not clear to what extent VR is accepted by nurses. In literature on the application and/or integration of VR into nursing education is limited. It is largely unknown to what extent VR is part of the nursing education and whether nursing students learn how to implement VR in daily clinical practice. As the use of VR is becoming more widespread in health care, it is important that nursing educators take the lead in integration of innovative healthcare technologies in nursing curricula. Studies also showed the positive impact of the use of new technologies in the preparation of students for health professions. VR could bring new learning experience, but also the opportunity to prepare for the use of new technologies in future practice.