Virtual Reality Wound Care Training for Clinical Nursing Education: An Initial User Study

Abstract

Wound care is an essential nursing competency, where dressing change is an important component. Compliance with aseptic procedures and techniques is necessary to reduce the risk of infection. Proficiency in the skills can be developed through adequate practice. In this paper, use of virtual reality is proposed to provide more practice opportunity. An immersive virtual environment is developed to simulate the steps of changing a simple wound dressing. Positive comments are obtained from an initial user study on usability with an experienced nurse and an undergraduate nursing student. Comprehensive evaluation will be conducted to further improve the simulation.