What is the Impact of a VR Simulation Pilot with Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Students?

Abstract : Universal screening for substance misuse can identify patients for a brief intervention and enrollment in treatment. Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based approach to increase awareness, access to care, and motivation toward behavioral changes, yet still is not universally utilized. We developed a study to answer the question: What is the impact of a Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation in SBIRT on FNP students’ knowledge, confidence, and perceived quality of simulation learning? An SBIRT VR simulation was created for the Oculus Quest platform with a team including visualization, nursing, and simulation experts. A module sent to learners prior to the simulation-based experience served as pre-work. The Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™ and Kolb’s experiential learning theory were followed to ensure best practice and serve as a theoretical framework of active learning during simulation development and launch. The pilot SBIRT VR simulation has been conducted with FNP students with a plan for a second iteration November 2022. With IRB approval a demographic survey assessing learner background, content focused pre and posttest, content focused confidence scale, Simulation Effectiveness Tool, ([SET-M] Leighton, 2015), CLEC 2.0 (Leighton et al., 2015) data were collected. Results include n= 9 was obtained with the pretest and an n=5 on the post-test, confidence assessment, and SET-M and CLEC 2.0 questionnaires. Data currently collected indicate similar SET-M scores as described by Leighton et al. (2015). These preliminary results indicate the perceptions of the learners on the effectiveness of the VR simulation design and implementation.