ISSN: 2642-6250
Authors: Sohayb ABU TAPANJEH, Mahmoud Al-Masaeed and Muhammad Alqudah*
Background and Aim: Nurses' fatigue risks are on the rise. The implications include a rise in nurse's dissatisfaction, a decline in nurses' health, and a rise in the risk of medical errors. There is a need to counter fatigue by either coping with it or eliminating the risks involved. One of the emerging alternatives to handling nursing fatigue is virtual reality (VR) technology. The review examines the existing literature on the use of VR in managing nurses' fatigue. Methods: The review adopts an ILR approach. This includes collecting relevant literature online and critically examining it for patterns and trends on the topic. The required literature is collected from four databases, CINAHL, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Medline. An electronic search strategy for the Scopus database is duplicated across the other three databases. The findings result in MEDLINE (16), Google Scholar (41), SCOPUS (33), and CINAHL (19). After screening through the PRISMA Equator tool and a GRADE model on the articles' quality and reliability, 21 articles were used in the study analysis. Findings and Conclusion: The review findings indicate three broad areas of VR application in managing nurses' fatigue. They are (i) VR in encouraging nurses' rest, (ii) VR in promoting nurses' psychological well-being, and (iii) VR in nurses' fatigue mitigation training. The overall review conclusion is that VR is emerging as a complementary tool in managing nurses' fatigue. Institutions should invest in VR tools and infrastructure to complement their current nurses' fatigue mitigation and coping strategies.
Keywords: Virtual Reality; Nurse; Fatigue; Coping; Management
