Comparing Gaze Between Nurses and Students in a Home‐Visit Virtual Reality Simulation: A Preliminary Descriptive Study.

Background: Nurses' assessment skills during home visits remain tacit. Few studies have used home‐visit virtual reality (VR) simulations to compare the eye‐tracking behaviors of nurses and nursing students. This study aimed to elucidate the assessment characteristics of nurses with home‐visit experi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Health & Social Care in the Community Vol. 2026; pp. 1 - 16
Autores principales: Yoshioka-Maeda, Kyoko, Honda, Chikako, Sumikawa, Yuka, Okamoto, Yuko, Shimada, Megumi, Iwasaki-Motegi, Riho, Fujii, Hitoshi, Otsuki, Mai, Miura, Takahiro, Raut, Nivedita
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell 8/19/2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Background: Nurses' assessment skills during home visits remain tacit. Few studies have used home‐visit virtual reality (VR) simulations to compare the eye‐tracking behaviors of nurses and nursing students. This study aimed to elucidate the assessment characteristics of nurses with home‐visit experience and nursing students without experience by comparing their gaze movements using VR simulations of home visits. Methods: This descriptive study compared gaze patterns of five nurses and 39 students from a university in Tokyo. Participants viewed three VR scenarios, including immersive 360‐degree images while recording their gaze movements through a head‐mounted display. The three scenarios, including a single older person, an older couple, and parents with an infant, reflected practicum training, life cycles, and the size of households. Because the groups were small and unbalanced and students were observed in three waves, the analysis focused on inexperienced students in the first wave, who experienced the VR without prior observation, while later students observed a session first. The analysis employed robust, distribution‐free tests, effect sizes, and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Nurses exhibited significantly more saccades than students. This effect was consistent across wave structures and held despite the non‐normality of the data distribution. The head‐rolling speed differed between nurses and inexperienced students in the initial data but not in later waves. Regarding fixation behavior, nurses showed more consistent fixation duration and count in areas of interest, such as a small table, compared to students. Conclusions: Nurses tend to focus their gaze more consistently on cues relevant to patient health, while students examine the rooms more inconsistently. This indicates that expertise in home‐visit assessment is shaped by both what is observed and how the environment is searched. VR‐based eye tracking can help reveal these tacit skills for nursing education. Trial Registration: UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN‐CTR): UMIN000049037