Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Mar 6, 2026
Date Accepted: Jul 18, 2026
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Virtual Reality in Nursing and Midwifery Education: A Protocol of An Umbrella Review of the Evidence for Clinical Skills Training
ABSTRACT
Background:
: Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in healthcare training and nursing education to address clinical skills gaps and provide immersive learning experiences. While multiple systematic reviews have synthesised primary research on VR effectiveness, no umbrella review has comprehensively evaluated and integrated findings from existing systematic reviews specifically focused on nursing and midwifery education.
Objective:
Objectives: This umbrella review aims to systematically identify, critically appraise, and synthesise findings from published systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining the use of VR in nursing and midwifery education, with particular emphasis on clinical skills training.
Methods:
This protocol will follow the PRISMA-P 2015 statement and is registered with PROSPERO with reference number CRD420261303572. Nine databases will be searched, including PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, African Journals Online (AJOL), and SciELO. PROSPERO, reference lists from included reviews, and relevant grey literature will be used in addition to the searches. Two independent reviewers will conduct screening, data extraction, and methodological appraisal using AMSTAR 2. In addition, the overlap of primary studies across reviews will be calculated using the corrected covered area (CCA) method. Narrative synthesis will follow Synthesis Without Meta-Analysis (SWiM) guidance. Certainty of evidence will be assessed using an adapted GRADE approach for the overview of reviews.
Results:
Database searches are scheduled for March–April 2026. Study selection, data extraction, and quality appraisal are expected to be completed by May 2026. Data synthesis and manuscript submission are planned for June 2026. The review will produce a PRISMA 2020 flow diagram, AMSTAR 2 quality tables, overlap metrics with CCA calculations, outcome synthesis tables, GRADE summary of findings tables, and an evidence gap map.
Conclusions:
This umbrella review will provide a comprehensive, high-level synthesis of evidence regarding VR effectiveness in nursing and midwifery education. The findings will help inform the evidence-based incorporation of virtual reality technology into clinical training programs, curriculum development, digital innovative strategies, and future research priorities in clinical skills training, specifically in nursing and midwifery.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.