Virtual Reality Fall Education for Caregivers

Falls place a huge financial burden on healthcare delivery systems, as well as physical and emotional harm to patients and families. Nurses are responsible for identifying fall risks and educating patients about fall risks and prevention, but first must have a thorough understanding of fall risk hazards themselves. The purpose of the study is to determine if enhanced education for caregivers using Virtual Reality simulation increases self-reported use of environmental fall risk interventions, and perceived effectiveness of those interventions, for caregivers on a medical-surgical unit. A secondary purpose is to explore the relationship between perceived effectiveness, unit norms, availability of resources, and self-reported behavior related to the use environmental interventions. The study will use a matched-pair, clustered randomized controlled trial design. The setting is eight medical-surgical units across four hospitals. Unit-pairs at each hospital will be randomly assigned to control or intervention group. The sample will consist of clinical registered nurses and patient care nursing assistants. All participants will receive standard online fall risk education. Participants from the intervention units will also complete virtual reality simulation education delivered via an app on an iPhone that is attached to a headset. The Injurious Fall Risk Factors and Fall Prevention Interventions Survey will be used at baseline, 1 month post-, and 3 months post-education to measure perceived effectiveness, self-reported use, unit peer use, and availability of resources for use of environmental fall prevention interventions. A sample size of 30 participants per nursing unit will be needed for 90% power to detect mean differences of at least 0.5 points between groups.