Smart Glasses in Nursing Training - Redundant Gadget or Precious Tool? A Pilot Study

Heavy workloads in nursing care and high employee turnover call for efficient methods to support on-the-job training. Within the Witra Care project - aiming to develop mobile technologies to support knowledge transfer between experienced and inexperienced nurses - the objective was to investigate the feasibility and perceived usefulness of advanced smart glasses for an exemplary, specific activity in nursing training - preparation of a surgical instrument table in an operating room.

Four trainee nurses performed different tasks using speech-command operated smart glasses within an operating room setting and were asked for their expectations towards this technology, their experiences and perceptions.

All tasks could be achieved by the trainee nurses, and the overall perception was that the technology is supportive and helpful.

Our results indicate interest in new wearable technologies for supporting training in nursing care. Limitations include small sample size, selection bias and several technical issues such as speech recognition accuracy or short battery lifetime. More research is necessary to evaluate the usefulness and usability of advanced wearable devices for supporting knowledge transfer and training in nursing care.