Virtual Clinical Education: Going the Full Distance in Nursing Education

Clinical experience remains the foundation of practice disciplines such as nursing. Multiple factors such as shortage of nursing faculty and increasingly competitive clinical sites have encouraged nurse educators to seek alternative pedagogies to supplement traditional hands on clinical practice. Standardize patients and clinical simulation scenarios have evolved as reliable tools to enhance clinical education. However, their high costs and resource intense nature often limit their use. Distance education is an effective and accepted educational modality in our ever-changing, highly technical world. However, many distance education courses are limited to presenting didactic content and lack the capability to offer skills-based clinical education. Virtual reality experience is an interactive Internet-based approach to providing clinical education in a safe, nonthreatening environment that offers increased access and flexibility to the learner. This article explores the benefits and challenges of the virtual reality experience approach to supplement clinical practice and nursing.