The Effects of Blended Learning Using Virtual Reality Simulation in Pediatrics-adolescent Nursing Clinical Practice

Abstract

This study was to compare the effects of blended learning that integrates child-adolescent nursing clinical practice and virtual reality simulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of blended learning in parallel clinical practice of child-adolescent nursing and virtual reality simulation of child-adolescent nursing by comparison of critical thinking, problem-solving processes, and clinical performance in both education groups before and after the educational intervention. The participants were 48 nursing college students. The experimental group (n=22) exposed a blended learning using virtual reality simulation, combining child-adolescent nursing clinical practice education, while the control group (n=26) received only child-adolescent nursing clinical practice curriculum course. The data collection period was from March 8 to November 26, 2021. The general characteristics of subject’s were analyzed by number, percentage, mean and standard deviation. And clinical practice fused with virtual reality simulation, that is, homogeneity verification of the blended learning education group was analyzed by x2 test and independent t-test. Whether there is a differences between pretest and posttest critical thinking tendency, problem-solving process, and clinical performance ability of the blended learning and the clinical practice education group was analyzed by independent t-test. The pretest & posttest results of each group showed statistically significant improvements in critical thinking, problem-solving processes, and clinical performance. In a comparison of the results of the two groups, the only statistically significant difference was found for critical thinking. Furthermore blended learning, combining a v-sim and a clinical nursing practice, into the nursing curriculum may contribute to the further development of nursing education.