Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Undergraduate Nursing Education on Pneumonia

Background/Objectives: Virtual training is an innovative educational technology that offers students a more engaging and interactive experience compared to tradition-al classroom-based learning. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of tradition-al and virtual reality training methods in enhancing nursing students' knowledge and skills related to pneumonia care. Methods: A total of 120 nursing students were ran-domly assigned into a virtual reality group and a control group to study the pneumo-nia subject, comprising of 2 hours of theoretical lessons and 8 hours of hands-on train-ing. At the end of the course, the knowledge and skill scores were compared between the students in the virtual reality and traditional training groups using independent samples t-tests. Results: Students in the traditional training class scored higher in pneumonia-related knowledge compared to those in the virtual reality training group. In contrast, students participating in the virtual reality training group (mean score: 75.5, CI 72.1 to 79.0) demonstrated a higher score on a practical test aimed to assess nursing skills associated with pneumonia than those in the traditional training class (mean score: 87.3, CI 83.8 to 90.8). Conclusions: This study identified significant differences in the effectiveness of traditional and virtual reality training methods in nursing education related to pneumonia care. These findings suggest that traditional methods re-main effective for consolidating foundational knowledge, while virtual reality training enhances hands-on competencies.