Acquiring anatomical knowledge with VR glasses, finding the mistakes and risks in a virtual training room ‘Room of Horror’, for example in a hospital room, practising everyday care procedures: How can prospective nursing staff learn their future tasks as realistically as possible, but without risk? The nursing training of the future relies on virtual reality: VR goggles allow you to immerse yourself in special learning simulations and learn and practise in computer-generated virtual environments without any risk.
Start of the workshop series for nursing teachers and personnel development
First, however, it is important to familiarise the teachers themselves, i.e. the nursing educators who train the next generation of nurses, with the new techniques. To this end, the first workshop in the ‘Train the Trainer’ series took place at OTH Regensburg on 21 November 2024. In addition to nursing educators, people from personnel development in hospitals, nursing schools and long-term care facilities are also invited to the three workshops.
The participants come from Nuremberg, Schwandorf and Regensburg. They include specialists and teachers from Caritas Hospital St. Josef, Barmherzige Brüder Hospital, the Döpfer Schools, Bürgerheim Kumpfmühl and Vocational School 7 in Nuremberg. In the workshops, the innovative use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in nursing training can be experienced in a practical way in order to introduce them later in the respective institutions.
Practical insights into the actual use of VR
At the beginning of the three-hour workshop, Prof Dr Christa Mohr and her team explained the technical basics and didactic principles. The participants were then able to try out the VR glasses for themselves and experience how anatomical expertise can be deepened in a fun way. This gave them a first impression of how VR/AR can be used in nursing training. And an important advantage was also quickly apparent: ‘Practising in a safe virtual space not only improves the transfer from theory to practice, but also takes away the fear of making mistakes,’ says Prof. Dr Christa Mohr, Head of the Nursing Research Laboratory at OTH Regensburg.
Support with equipment and advice from autumn 2025
What happens after the workshops? - In autumn 2025, the participating institutions will receive the equipment with hardware and software free of charge. The OTH Regensburg research team will be on hand to advise on the introduction and application. The aim is to optimise the first steps in nursing training with the use of VR and to quickly clarify any questions.
‘The health university in Bavaria’ - now with VR studio
OTH Regensburg has long been regarded as the healthcare university in Bavaria: with practice-based degree programmes such as physiotherapy, midwifery, speech therapy and nursing science. In order to strengthen digitalisation and promote digital transformation in nursing training, a VR studio was set up as part of the VReduMED research project. Here, students and teachers can familiarise themselves with the topic in a practical way and try out the possibilities. - The ‘Train the Trainer’ workshops now also take place here in the VR studio at OTH Regensburg.
Background - About the research project:
The VReduMED project (‘We connect the world of virtual reality with the healthcare sector’) is scheduled to run for three years (April 2023 to March 2026) and has a total budget of 2.2 million euros. 80 percent of this comes from the EU Interreg Central Europe programme. OTH Regensburg and the Bavaria-wide network Strategische Partnerschaft Sensorik e.V. are partners in the project in Germany. The Regensburg Centre of Health Sciences and Technology (RCHST) and the Nursing Research Laboratory at OTH Regensburg are also involved.
The project is managed by the South Bohemian Science and Technology Park from the Czech Republic; other partners are: the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice from the Czech Republic, Business Upper Austria and the Education Group from Austria, the University of Economics in Bratislava and the National Institute of Children's Diseases from Slovakia and the Innoskart Digital Cluster and Széchenyi István University from Hungary.
