Located in Hungary’s fifth-largest city, the University of Pécs has around 25.000 students in total, including approximately 5.000 enrolled in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Programs such as nursing, midwifery, and radiology have a minimum duration of four years. Students generally begin their university studies at age 18 and typically complete a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences by age 25. The curriculum consists of 60% theoretical instruction and 40% practical training. Two-year Master’s programs are also offered.
The Faculty of Health Sciences provides several continuing education opportunities, including two-year programs in complex rehabilitation, human kinesiology, and health management. It also hosts a PhD school.
The current situation of healthcare education in Hungary is complex, shaped by expanding training opportunities, modernization efforts, and significant structural challenges. More detailed information can be found in this summary.
Operating as both a university and a research body, the Faculty of Health Sciences incorporates modern technologies into its work. In the Skills Lab, Dr. Tollár utilizes VR to depict anatomical structures and facilitate process training.
Trainees face major challenges, particularly the aging workforce and the profession’s negative image. In Hungary, further difficulties arise from large patient numbers, heavy workloads, and a significant divide between senior and junior nurses that slows knowledge sharing. Many managers also find it challenging to develop the skills needed to work with modern technologies.
Apart from that, the university also faces the ongoing challenge of operating facilities such as the modern skills laboratory, as the equipment is costly and prone to rapid wear and tear.
Staffing shortages, increasing retirements, the psychological and physical strain that can lead to burnout, and difficult working conditions—particularly part-time and shift work—as well as remuneration issues, represent general challenges facing the nursing profession in Hungary.
Dr. Tollár, an expert in neurorehabilitation and kinesiology, already uses VR and robotics in his work as a lecturer and practical instructor. His areas of specialization include intensive care and hospital services. Alongside his leadership roles in the Department of Neurorehabilitation and the Laboratory for Human Kinesiology and Robotics, he has also worked at the Mór Kaposi Teaching Hospital in Kaposvár, where Xbox and Oculus Quest headsets are used for patient rehabilitation. He appreciates that VR scenarios allow for experiencing new learning environments and situations, and that they also enable a unique element of randomness and varied practice in training.
Dr. Tollár is therefore very open-minded when asked about potential virtual reality scenarios. For student education, he envisions VR applications for communication training and for improving interactions with patients—for example in methodology courses, process training, and similar contexts.
He also sees many valuable applications for patients that could help reduce the workload for nursing staff. For example, he imagines VR tools that educate patients about illnesses, examinations, and medical procedures, as well as applications that train family members to provide care at home.
Exercises using VR headsets would also be beneficial for activating patients, and applications designed to support memory development would offer greater immersion, giving patients more variety and motivation. Dr. Tollár emphasized that such VR applications should be usable both while sitting and lying down.
He is also considering the needs of young patients—distraction with VR during examinations or procedures could significantly reduce the burden on nursing staff.
Virtual reality enables illnesses and limitations to be visualized through immersive simulations. According to Dr. Tollár, situational VR exercises could be particularly useful for easing anxiety in patients undergoing therapy for psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Tollár knows the primary challenges of introducing VR in educational settings firsthand, having already overcome them at his own institutions. For him, the most critical factors are integrating VR into the institution’s IT infrastructure, maintaining the quality of the IT equipment, and dealing with the limited or insufficient familiarity with these new technologies among local IT staff.
The VR headsets are installed in a dedicated lab at the institute. Students can book time slots to work with them. This lab also hosts courses on basic VR usage and scenario training. These courses are mandatory for all students; afterwards, students can use VR in other courses as well.
The use of VR or AR in skill labs in nursing education and the establishment of a functional, disease-specific training program for neurology, surgery, and rehabilitation would be an ideal future scenario for the experienced trainer.
According to Dr. Tollár, VR apps must be easy to use, visually high-quality, and designed with the user in mind, with individual VR scenarios lasting no more than ten minutes.
When he thinks about the ideal use of VR or AR in nursing education, he imagines a patient-focused application that enhances cognitive function after brain injuries. In his vision, immersive VR would be paired with body sensors to deliver more accurate feedback, enabling full-body motion tracking for trauma and rehabilitation and significantly advancing motor and movement training.
© Széchenyi István University
Dr. habil. József Tollárin conversation with Dr. PhD Tamás Budai
Further information: University of Pécs | Faculty of Health Sciences