Transforming aged care with virtual reality: How organisational culture impacts technology adoption and sustained uptake

Abstract

Objectives: Virtual reality (VR) is not a common leisure activity in aged care, despite pilot studies demonstrating its value as a tool to combat inactivity and loneliness. This study investigated the organisational enablers and barriers to sustained uptake of VR among aged care staff and organisations, who may lack familiarity or confidence with the technology.

Methods: Creative methods were adopted to co-design and develop a VR implementation toolkit tailored specifically for aged care staff. Three aged care homes in South-East Queensland participated, with 15 residents and seven staff engaging in up to four VR sessions facilitated by the research team. Participant observation of the VR sessions was complemented by interviews with aged care staff and residents.

Results: Guided by Normalisation Process Theory, a reflexive thematic analysis identified four key themes: (1) Positively Appreciating the VR Experience, (2) Staff VR Champions and the Importance of Personal Use and Experimentation with VR, (3) Management Support and (4) Technical Challenges.

Conclusions: Our results indicate benefits and challenges of VR use in aged care, offering valuable insights into the factors that can lead to the long-term success of VR-based leisure activities for aged care. Providing time and resources for a VR champion to experiment and learn about the technology is critical. The development of an online implementation toolkit, based on our learning from this project, also provides aged care stakeholders with the evidence-based resources needed to ensure the successful implementation of VR-based leisure programs.

Keywords: carers; homes for the aged; implementation toolkit; residential aged care; virtual reality; workforce.