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Virtual Reality Training in Nasogastric Catheter Application for Nursing Students
Sponsor: Gaziantep Islam Science and Technology University
Summary
Nasogastric catheter insertion is a complex psychomotor nursing skill in which incorrect placement can cause serious harm, including pulmonary aspiration, pneumothorax and death. Nurses are professionally responsible for the procedure from their first day in clinical practice, so competence must be acquired before graduation. The final-year students eligible for this trial had an unusual educational history. They took the Fundamentals of Nursing course, in which nasogastric catheter application is first taught, in the spring semester of 2019-2020. Face-to-face teaching was suspended in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the course was completed online, so the cohort received no hands-on laboratory training in that course. Clinical practice was further disrupted by the Kahramanmaras earthquakes of February 2023. Opportunities for repeated individual practice of this skill therefore remained limited throughout their education. This single-centre, pretest-posttest randomised controlled trial compared immersive virtual reality training with traditional simulator-based practice in nasogastric catheter application. Eighty-five final-year nursing students at Eskisehir Osmangazi University were randomised to a virtual reality group or a traditional method group, and 78 completed the study. Both groups received the same theoretical and demonstration training; they then practised the procedure either in an immersive virtual reality application or on a medium-fidelity simulator, up to three times each. The outcomes assessed were psychomotor skill performance, performance on safety-critical procedural steps, knowledge, self-confidence, anxiety and motivation. Data collection took place between 14 March and 20 May 2024.
Official title: Evaluation of the Effect of Virtual Reality-Based Nasogastric Catheter Application Skill on the Knowledge, Skills, Self-Confidence, Anxiety and Motivation of Graduating Nursing Students
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
85
Start Date
2024-03-14
Completion Date
2024-05-20
Last Updated
2026-09-21
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Conditions
Interventions
Immersive Virtual Reality Training
An immersive virtual reality application developed in Unity for the Oculus Quest 2 platform, comprising two modules: nasogastric catheter insertion (53 procedural steps) and removal (32 procedural steps). Each step is a separate scene set in a hospital room seen from the nurse's perspective, with on-screen text and synchronised audio narration guiding the user through the procedure.
Traditional Simulator Practice
Practice of nasogastric catheter insertion and removal on a medium-fidelity simulator in the professional skills laboratory, following demonstration by the researcher in accordance with the Nasogastric Catheter Application Checklist.
Locations (1)
Gaziantep Islamic Science and Technology University
Gaziantep, Şahinbey/Gaziantep, Turkey (Türkiye)