The Effectiveness of Combining AR/VR Technology in Virtual Clinical Auditory Hallucinations on the Comprehensive Auditory Hallucination Nursing Competency of Psychiatric Nurses

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Virtual clinical auditory hallucination solution combining AR/VR technology: This study, titled "Effectiveness of AR/VR-integrated OSCE on Psychiatric Nurses' Comprehensive Auditory Hallucination Care Ability: A Randomized Controlled Trial," involves both experimental and control groups watching videos. The control group views standard educational videos, while the experimental group uses AR/VR technology, virtual patient interaction platforms, and educational videos in a simulated clinical environment. Four scripts were developed: two for training and two for pre/post-testing. All scripts and OSCE checklists are researcher-developed, reviewed by experts, and pilot tested.

Auditory Hallucination Care Video: The videos include professional knowledge and skills related to auditory hallucinations.

Study summary

This study aims to develop and evaluate a Virtual Reality (VR) Auditory Hallucination Program to enhance psychiatric nurses' comprehensive care competence in managing auditory hallucinations among patients with schizophrenia. Given that 60-80% of patients on the schizophrenia spectrum experience auditory hallucinations, and many continue to do so despite medication, improving nurses' professional skills in this area is critical.

The research is conducted in two phases across four psychiatric institutions. Phase one involves the development and validation of the VR program and an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), piloted with five participants and evaluated by psychiatric nursing experts. Phase two is a formal interventional study with 200 psychiatric nurses, using block randomization and three data collection time points.

Assessment tools include five instruments measuring nurses' confidence, knowledge, attitude, empathy, immersion, and care performance related to auditory hallucinations. The study expects to strengthen nurses' ability to assess and manage auditory hallucinations effectively, and proposes the VR program as a potential tool for nursing in-service education.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Auditory Hallucination Immersion and Empathy Scale — At baseline (pre-intervention), 6 weeks after the first intervention, and 6 weeks after the second intervention.
  To assess the impact of the intervention on empathy, this study uses the Situational Scale of Empathetic Responses (Schutte \& Stilinović, 2017), consisting of 15 items-7 on empathic perspective taking and 8 on empathic concern. Participants imagine interacting with a person hearing voices and rate items on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree); higher scores indicate greater empathy in auditory hallucination scenarios. The scale was translated and validated for content. Additionally, we will adopt the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE-HP version), translated and adapted by Cheng et al. (2011), with a KMO of 0.93 and Cronbach's α = .73-.89.
• Auditory Hallucination Knowledge, Attitude, and Empathic Self-Awareness Scale; Auditory Hallucination Literacy Scale. — At baseline (pre-intervention), 6 weeks after the first intervention, and 6 weeks after the second intervention.
  This tool, developed by Mawson (2014), includes 11 items assessing knowledge, attitudes, and empathy toward auditory hallucinations. Participants respond using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from "strongly agree" (5) to "strongly disagree" (1). As it has not been used in Taiwan, we have completed forward and backward translation and content validity testing. Reliability and validity testing of the Chinese version will be completed before the intervention study.

Trial sites (4)

More National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University trials in Taiwan