The goal is to enhance the learning experience by making it more practical, vivid, and interactive. To support interested institutions in getting started, the VReduMED team from OTH visited a practice instructor from medbo, the Bezirksklinikum in Regensburg.
The main goal of the event was to give the practice instructor, herself a trained nurse and currently a nursing student at OTH, a comprehensive introduction to the world of virtual reality and the specific learning applications available. With this knowledge, she will be able to meaningfully integrate VR technology into both one-on-one practice instruction and group teaching sessions with her nursing students at medbo. After a short presentation of the project, the emphasis was placed on hands-on experience—allowing her to explore the VR applications directly and gain practical insights for educational use.
Following the concise introduction to the VReduMED project, the practice instructor received a structured walkthrough of the VR headsets and the available applications. With the support of the project team, she had the opportunity to test the various programs, learn about technical handling, and discuss best practices for educational use. This practical training laid the foundation for her to develop tailored ideas on how to effectively integrate VR into everyday clinical teaching scenarios, both in individual supervision and in group settings with multiple students.
In the coming weeks, she plans to incorporate the VR headsets into her regular instruction at medbo, providing her students with innovative and interactive learning experiences. Additionally, she aims to introduce more colleagues to the new learning method, ensuring that even more students can benefit from the possibilities that VR-based training offers in modern nursing education.
The participants for the introductory session as part of the VReduMED project includes:
Joana Mattheus, practice instructor at medbo, certified nurse, and nursing student at OTH Regensburg; Anselm Stadler, research associate at the VR Lab of OTH Regensburg; and Cheryl Heinz, student assistant at the VR Lab of OTH Regensburg.