MedTrace Logo

Virtual Reality Educational Intervention for Nursing Students' Day Surgery Patient Counselling

NCT07305714 · Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 60

Last updated 2026-01-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This pilot feasibility study evaluates whether a virtual reality (VR) educational program can help nursing students develop better skills for counseling day surgery patients.

Day surgery patients spend limited time in the hospital but need comprehensive information about their surgery, recovery, and self-care at home. Nurses must provide effective patient education within short timeframes, which creates unique challenges. Research shows that surgical patients consistently report needing more education than they currently receive, particularly about managing pain, recognizing complications, and knowing what to expect during recovery.

Traditional nursing education often lacks the patient's perspective and emotional context that characterize real clinical situations. Virtual reality simulation can address this gap by letting nursing students experience healthcare scenarios from the patient's viewpoint in a safe learning environment.

The CINDY (Counseling Intervention for Day Surgery) intervention uses 360-degree VR videos showing day surgery situations from the patient's perspective. Students can practice counseling skills and learn to understand patient concerns before working with actual patients.

This pilot feasibility study will include 60 nursing students from Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences. Thirty students will receive the CINDY VR intervention alongside their regular education, while 30 students will receive only standard education. The study will run for approximately 6-7 months.

The primary goal is to test whether this VR approach is feasible and acceptable for nursing education. The study will measure:

* How successfully students can be recruited and retained
* Whether students complete the VR program as designed
* Student and educator satisfaction with the learning method
* Technical performance and usability of the VR platform
* Preliminary changes in student counseling competencies

Results will inform the design of a larger study to definitively test whether VR training improves nursing students' patient counseling skills. This research may help nursing programs better prepare students to provide high-quality patient education in day surgery settings.

Conditions

  • Healthy

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

CINDY Virtual Reality Educational Intervention

The CINDY (Counseling Intervention for Day Surgery) is a 90-minute virtual reality-based educational program delivered through the ThingLink platform. The intervention features interactive 360-degree VR scenarios depicting day surgery patient journeys from admission through discharge, including preoperative preparation, postoperative recovery, and discharge counseling. The scenarios were co-designed by a nursing educator, digital content expert, and day surgery nurse, and filmed in authentic clinical settings. Students experience situations from the patient's perspective, focusing on patient anxiety management, effective information provision, and counseling techniques for time-limited day surgery settings.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Tampere University

    collaborator OTHER

  • Medtronic

    collaborator INDUSTRY

  • Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2026-01-30
Primary Completion
2026-11-18
Completion
2027-01-31

More Related Trials

Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07305714 on ClinicalTrials.gov