Training nurses and educating the public using a virtual operating room with Oculus Rift

The purpose of this work is to contribute to the design and development of a virtual university hospital as a place for educational activities. The findings presented in this paper are based on two exploratory studies using a virtual operating room with both medical and non-medical participants. The room was designed to recreate a real one at St. Olav´s university hospital in Trondheim, Norway. The first participant category was represented by surgical and anesthesia postgraduate nursing students who conducted role-play of realistic and relevant scenarios in the virtual operating room. The non-medical participants went on a virtual guided tour around in the same operating room. Both participant groups provided suggestions for further development of the virtual hospital. We have also investigated the use of the Oculus Rift, a head mounted display, as a way of enhancing the immersion at the virtual operating room. The paper highlights and discusses the most important findings, with suggestions of future work.