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

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.