Development and Educational Effectiveness of a Mixed Reality (MR) Program to Support Clinical Judgment in the Observation of Postoperative Patients.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a clinical judgment support program using mixed reality (MR) for the observation of postoperative patients.

METHODS

This study employed a randomized controlled trial design, with 34 fourth-year nursing students as participants. The students were randomly allocated into two groups: a traditional simulation group (Sim group, = 17) and an MR group ( = 17). Both groups were tasked with observing postoperative patients and making clinical judgments. The Sim group engaged in patient observation through classical simulation, followed by a debriefing session with the investigator. The MR group observed the patient according to the procedure displayed on HoloLens2 and conducted the self-debriefing using the developed program. Key outcome measures included educational time, the number of items observed, motivation for learning, satisfaction, confidence, and participant feedback.

RESULTS

The results indicated that the MR group was able to observe a more significant number of observation items. Additionally, while the simulation time was longer in the MR group, the debriefing time was shorter compared to the Sim group. Psychological safety was higher in the MR group, whereas the Sim group, which had individualized debriefing opportunities, reported significantly increased confidence and reduced anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that utilizing MR-based materials for teaching postoperative patient observation is more efficient and effective in educating novice nursing students.