Evaluation of artificial intelligence generated immersive virtual reality simulation on skill mastery.

BACKGROUND: Nursing education faces challenges in providing nursing students with sufficient clinical site opportunities due to healthcare staffing shortages and faculty resource constraints. The decline in clinical opportunities has a negative impact on nursing students' growth in critical thinking, clinical decision making, and nursing skill proficiency levels. Artificial intelligence (AI)- generated Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) simulation provides a potential solution to improve these clinical education outcomes. PURPOSE: AI-generated IVR simulations for nursing students included two clinical skill scenarios: medication administration and intravenous (IV) insertion performed at three checkpoints. Forty-two undergraduate nursing students completed prebriefing activities, physical skill performance, and two IVR simulation sessions over several months. METHOD: Participant performance was evaluated at three checkpoints: physical simulation performance (checkpoint 1), the first AI-generated IVR simulation attempt (checkpoint 2), and the second AI-generated IVR simulation attempt (checkpoint 3) using the Creighton Competency Evaluation Instrument (C-CEI) and AI-generated data analytics. Student satisfaction was assessed using the Simulation Effectiveness Tool-Modified (SET-M). RESULTS: Student performance scores increased across the three checkpoints for both medication administration and intravenous (IV) insertion skills. Improvements were observed in areas related to critical thinking, clinical decision-making, and nursing skill proficiency based on C-CEI evaluations and AI-generated performance analytics. Students also reported high satisfaction with the AI-generated IVR simulation experience as measured by the Simulation Effectiveness Tool-Modified (SET-M). CONCLUSION: Participation in AI-generated IVR simulation was associated with higher nursing student scores in critical thinking, clinical decision-making, and nursing skill proficiency. Students also reported high satisfaction with the AI-generated IVR simulation experience. These findings support the use of AI-generated IVR simulation as an additional strategy for expanding clinical learning opportunities within nursing education and preparing nursing students for professional clinical practice.