Technology overview reveals best practices for improved integration of extended reality in health care simulation, suggesting ways to manage cognitive load and accessibility barriers.
Background: Extended reality (XR) technologies are increasingly integrated into health care simulations. XR enables immersive, interactive, and multisensory learning experiences that enhance skill acquisition, knowledge retention, and interprofessional collaboration. Problem: Despite growing interest, educators should address challenges, such as cognitive load management, inconsistent standards, accessibility barriers, and cost-effectiveness, to optimize the potential of XR. Approach: The authors in this Technology Overview synthesize evidence and provide expert discussion to explore the current state, challenges, and future directions of XR. Outcomes: The resulting recommendations highlight best practices in XR integration, including guidance on modality selection, curricular alignment, strategies to minimize cognitive overload, and future trends. Conclusions: XR has the potential to enhance nursing and health care education by supporting immersive, scalable, and learner-centered experiences. The future of XR depends on strategic efforts to enhance realism, usability, and integration. Priorities include intuitive design, adaptive artificial intelligence, advanced haptics, cost-effectiveness, and improved accessibility to support learning.
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Cieslowski et al. (2025) studied this question.
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