ACQUISITION OF SURGICAL SKILLS WITH THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY
Keywords:
Virtual reality, surgical nursing, simulated training, clinical skillAbstract
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46296/gt.v9i17.0361
Abstract
Introduction: Virtual reality emerges as an innovative pedagogical tool in medical education that allows the simulation of surgical procedures in immersive environments and demonstrates benefits in the acquisition of knowledge and technical precision. Objective: To evaluate the acquisition of surgical skills with the use of virtual reality in students of the nursing program. Methodology: Study with a quantitative approach, experimental design, and observational and descriptive scope. This research was carried out in seventh-semester students of the Nursing program of the Technical University of Ambato, in the period September 2025–March 2026. The research was carried out in four phases: development of an instrument that evaluated surgical skills in a simulated practice in virtual reality in a surgical environment, application of the instrument, and analysis of results using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Results: Validation and reliability were performed with 0.95 according to Cronbach’s Alpha. The non-parametric Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test was applied, whose results show a statistically significant difference between group A and group B, with a significance level of p<0.001. The results demonstrate that the virtual reality scenario on surgical nursing had a positive effect and great impact on the acquisition of surgical skills. Discussion: Simulated virtual reality environments allow better acquisition and development of surgical skills, as well as greater retention of information by providing an entertaining learning method that complements traditional education, making validation important for its application.
Keywords: Virtual reality, surgical nursing, simulated training, clinical skill.
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