Abstract
In this paper, we present the first results of a study exploring how to support collaborative learning of surgical nursing students in a 3D virtual world. A Virtual Operating room, resembling the one at St. Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway was created in Second Life to accommodate an educational role-play. In this role-play, the operating nursing students could practice communication with patients and cooperation in the team while preparing patients for surgery. At the first stage of the evaluation, the virtual simulation has been tested among nine postgraduate nursing students. The participants gave their evaluation and opinions in the form of questionnaires and discussion after the role-plays. Following the analysis of the data, we present a summary of the most important results in this paper. This study provides a number of suggestions for improving the learning process when role-playing in a virtual environment. We demonstrate that an educational simulation can be implemented with limited resources, and yet be practically useful in education of health personnel. Further research with medical and nursing students is highly applicable and feasible, and should include a larger group of participants. In the next stage of our work, the evaluation of the Virtual Operating room has been conducted with nurses, who are on an earlier stage of their study program, as well as anesthesia nurses and non-medics.