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Virtual Reality in Medical Education, Healthcare Education, and Nursing Education: An Overview

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Virtual reality is increasingly used in health sciences education, including healthcare, nursing, and medical education. Hence, this study provides an overview of the use of virtual reality within healthcare education, nursing education, and medical education through the analysis of published documents from 2010 to 2025. Based on the outcomes of this study, virtual reality emerged as an effective educational tool that can support students and health professionals. The immersive, realistic, and safe environments created in virtual reality allowed learners to enhance their knowledge and practice their skills, patient interactions, and decision-making without risking patient safety. Improvements in learning outcomes, including performance, clinical skills development, critical thinking, and knowledge acquisition were observed. Virtual reality also positively contributes toward a more holistic health sciences education as it increases students’ empathy and behavioral understanding. Finally, eight main research topics were identified and research gaps and future research directions are presented.

Source: Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

DOI: 10.3390/mti9070075

Authors: Georgios Lampropoulos, Antonio del Bosque, Pablo Fernández-Arias, Diego Vergara

Institutions: University of Nicosia, University of Macedonia, Catholic University of Ávila

Language: English

Topic: Simulation-Based Education in Healthcare

Subfield: Physiology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,930