Stepping into the emergency: nursing students’ lived experience in cardiac arrest immersive simulation

Aim To explore nursing students’ experiences of imm ersive simulation (IS) in emergency situations, focusing on how these experiences are understood and how they influence personal and professional development. Background Immersive simulation is a well-established pedagogical strategy in nursing education, offering realistic and emotionally engaging environments to support clinical reasoning, teamwork, and decision-making. Recent advances, including virtual reality (VR), have enhanced the realism of emergency simulations; however, limited evidence exists on how students interpret these experiences and how they contribute to professional identity formation. Design Hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study based on Cohen’s approach. Methods Fifteen undergraduate nursing students participated in VR-enhanced cardiac arrest simulation scenarios. Data were collected through reflective journals and semi-structured focus groups and were analyzed thematically, with triangulation used to enhance rigor. Results Four themes emerged: immersion in the emergency, learning from error, transitioning from individual to team-based practice, and envisioning oneself as a future nurse. Conclusions VR-enhanced IS provides emotionally engaging learning experiences that promote reflection, teamwork, and early professional identity development in nursing students.