Aim: This research is designed to establish and evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality simulation program using COVID-19 scenario for nursing students.
Design: This is a quasi-experimental study using a non-equivalent control group pre-test-posttest design.
Methods: The participants were 65 students in their fourth year in nursing college. The knowledge about communicable infectious diseases in the respiratory system, self-efficacy, clinical reasoning capacity and learning satisfaction was evaluated.
Results: The experimental group showed a significantly higher learning satisfaction (t = 3.01, p = .004). Both groups presented statistically significant differences in knowledge on infectious respiratory diseases, self-efficacy and clinical reasoning between pre-test and posttest. However, knowledge (t = 0.47, p = .643), self-efficacy (t = 0.70, p = .944) and clinical reasoning were not different between the groups.
Keywords: COVID-19; education; nursing; simulation; virtual reality.
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