Development of virtual reality educational clips for improving hand hygiene compliance among healthcare providers: a pilot study

Abstract

The usefulness of virtual reality (VR) technology for healthcare practitioners has been increasingly investigated, but that of infection prevention and control (IPC) training is yet to be well described in the literature. We developed patient-view VR clips to promote hand hygiene compliance in healthcare settings and conducted a pilot study to evaluate their effectiveness and safety in hospitals. In December 2022, we held a hands-on IPC workshop at Marugame Medical Center (Kagawa, Japan). We recruited 20 nurses and five nursing aids for the VR experience using a fully immersive 360-degree head-mounted display. Participants were evaluated using a self-administered questionnaire and a short nursing care scenario based on the direct observation method. All the participants answered that the VR experience was helpful for increasing awareness of the 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene. However, 37.5% and 4.2% reported little or heavy VR sickness, respectively. Hand hygiene compliance among nurses was considerably high, at 95.0% for "Before touching a patient," 95.0% for "Before clean/aseptic procedure," 85.0% for "After body fluid exposure risk," 92.5% for "After touching a patient," and 95.0% for "After touching patients’ surroundings." The results of this pilot study suggest the educational utility of VR clips. Future collaboration between IPC practitioners and digital technology experts is required to develop better educational devices and content.