Acquisition of Fire Safety Knowledge and Skills With Virtual Reality Simulation

Background: Prelicensure nursing students seeking to enter perioperative nursing need preparatory fire safety knowledge and skills training to participate as a member of an operating room (OR) team. Purpose: This pilot study examined the effectiveness of the Virtual Electrosurgery Skill Trainer (VEST) on OR fire safety skills among prelicensure nursing students. Methods: An experimental pretest-posttest design was used in this study. Twenty nursing students were randomized to a control or an intervention group. Knowledge and skills acquisition of OR fire safety were assessed. Results: There were no statistically significant findings in knowledge for either group. Fisher exact test demonstrated significant relationships between the skills performance criteria of following emergency procedures for a fire and demonstrating PASS (pull-aim-squeeze-sweep) technique (P = .001). Conclusions: Academic and hospital educators may consider incorporating virtual reality simulation to teach fire safety education or reinforce general fire safety practices to nursing students and novice nurses.