Effectiveness of a virtual reality application‐based education programme on patient safety management for nursing students: A pre‐test–post‐test study

AIMS: We aimed to develop a virtual reality‐based smartphone application that improves patient safety competency among nursing students in terms of knowledge, attitudes and confidence in patient safety management. We also sought to evaluate the effects and utility of the application in improving patient safety competency. DESIGN: A parallel, randomized controlled pre‐ and post‐test trial was conducted to test the effects of knowledge, attitudes and performance confidence in patient safety management. METHODS: Participants were randomly allocated to the experimental (n = 22), in which nursing students received a two‐week mobile web‐based training programme covering key topics in patient safety management or the control group (n = 22), in which nursing students received a training booklet. Participants completed a pre‐test and two post‐test questionnaires to assess the program's impact. The evaluation tools were patient safety management knowledge, attitude and patient safety management performance confidence scale. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, homogeneity test for pre‐test, unpaired t‐test and repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: Patient safety competency in the experimental group improved significantly in terms of knowledge (from 11.68 to 18.55, p < 0.000), attitude (from 3.38 to 4.01; p < 0.005) and performance confidence (from 3.93 to 4.52; p < 0.000) compared with the control group. Our findings suggest that mobile app‐based education using virtual reality may be effective in enhancing patient safety management in nursing education.