Extended Reality in Nursing Professional Development: A Scoping Review of Continuing Education Applications for...

Extended reality (XR), encompassing virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, creates immersive educational environments that connect theory with practice, and it is increasingly used in continuing professional development. This scoping review examines current literature on XR technologies for nursing professional development.

Literature published between January 2022 and March 2025 was synthesized from the MEDLINE, Scopus, and CINAHL databases.

Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, spanning 10 countries, with sample sizes ranging from seven to 1,868 nurses. Virtual reality was the predominant modality (84% of interventions), mostly in hospital settings. Five primary themes emerged: (1) learning outcomes and educational effectiveness, (2) technical and implementation challenges, (3) realism and fidelity considerations, (4) specialized clinical applications, and (5) user experience and engagement.

Interventions that used XR improved clinical knowledge, confidence, and procedural skills, with some studies reporting advantages over traditional methods, despite challenges such as cybersickness, infrastructure limits, financial constraints, and limited haptic feedback.