Cognitive walkthrough: Medication administration process in a virtual nursing training program

For training purposes, virtual reality simulation software has been broadly applied to the areas of manufacturing, aviation, driving behavior, and healthcare domains. To extend the capability of simulation, a cognitive walkthrough was conducted to evaluate a nursing training computer program, Virtual Clinical Excursions (VCE), and to provide insights to enhance nursing education. VCE guides nursing students through a virtual hospital to assess patients, to set priorities for care, and to analyze and interpret patient statuses. In this study, the medication administration process within the VCE virtual hospital environment was evaluated, and then compared to the medication administration process observed in a real healthcare facility. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how nursing training program tasks, such as those simulated in VCE, represent current state-of-the-art medication administration process tasks. Based on the realistic workflow and scenarios, recommendations are provided to enhance of learning and the usability of virtual training process, such as VCE, for future healthcare providers.