Enhancing the Digital Competence of Nurses Through a Project-Based Augmented Reality Approach in Continuing Education.

Background: The rapid integration of digital technologies into health care highlights the need for practicing nurses to strengthen their technological competence to improve patient education and clinical care quality.

Method: This continuing education program integrated project-based learning with augmented reality (AR) technology to engage nurses in group-based AR design activities to develop foundational AR skills to create interactive patient education tools. A digital learning motivation scale and performance-based assessments were administered before and after the program to evaluate changes in the participants' motivation and digital health education competence.

Results: The participants showed a significant increase in motivation to use technology (p < .001) and successfully developed five AR-based tools designed for patient education.

Conclusion: This program supported the translation of clinical expertise into digital tools and enhanced nurses' ability to apply technology in educational practice, contributing to the advancement of professional development in continuing nursing education.