As I look towards the future of nursing education at my institution, and across the province, I can see an expanded role for virtual reality and augmented reality simulation. It is difficult due to the chronic nursing shortages in our province and across Canada to provide students practical experiences in real world settings, student nurses require clinical supervision from qualified nurses to graduate and obtain their licensure, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide clinical opportunities. Accepting that simulation is at the forefront of nursing education and research consistently showing that it supports learning and helps bridge the gap from theory to practice (Sengul & Sarikose, 2025) I believe we will see VR and AR integrated into nursing education.
Looking forward to 2035, I can imagine students interacting with A.I. generated patients and allied healthcare professionals in realistic clinical scenarios. This would allow students to practice clinical decision making, communication skills, and procedures in fully VR or AR environments before working with real patients, this could potentially be done in the student’s own home. I see educators still playing an important role in developing and monitoring simulations and providing debriefing to students. This could help solve clinical placement challenges but I don’t see it completely replacing real world settings.
I recognize that advanced technology doesn’t always mean better learning and concerns over how technology is distributed and accessed raises ethical concerns. Singh and Maughan (2014) raise serious concerns through their case studies on how access to technology and who decides access can impact learners and society. Selwyn’s (2024) discussion on the limitations of AI also make me question how much we should rely on AI to support learning. I want to explore whether theses technologies can meaningfully address challenges facing nursing education and what that might look like.
References:
Selwyn, N. (2024). On the Limits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education. Nordisk tidsskrift for pedagogikk og kritikk ,10, 3-14. http://doi.org/10.23865/ntpk.v10.6062
Sengul, T., Sarikose, S. (2025). Enhancing learning outcomes through AI-driven simulation in nursing education: A systematic review. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2025.101797
Singh, S., Maughan, T. (2014). The future of ed tech is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Medium. The future of ed tech is here, it’s just not evenly distributed | by Tim Maughan | Futures Exchange | Medium
Callan, I liked that you started from a real constraint, too few placements and too few supervising nurses, instead of from the technology. It makes your 2035 feel earned.
One thing that jumped out at me when I was reading this post was how nurses will feel at the end of the highly simulated training that this VR and AR integration will create. Will the training be rigid and create the ‘ideal nurse’ or will there also be focus on the human connections that also make the profession meaningful? I mean is a technically skilled nurse really better than a compassionate one?
Thanks Vince,
This question keeps coming up in the research as well. Students self-report feeling like they are learning communication skills and empathy through the simulations, but no noticeable difference has been found in communication performance. Most of the research I’ve seen so far promotes a hybrid model with VR simulation and continuing with student placements to practice with real patients.
Cheers,