Immersive Virtual Reality to Strengthen Nursing Students’ Competencies in Newcomer Mental Health Care

Newcomers in Canada, including immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, continue to face substantial mental health inequities shaped by stigma, cultural and linguistic differences, discrimination, and structural barriers. These challenges often result in delayed help-seeking and unmet needs that leads to worsening symptoms and overall quality of life. At the same time, many nurses report feeling underprepared to provide culturally responsive mental health care to newcomer populations upon entering the workforce. In recent years, immersive virtual reality (IVR) has emerged as a promising educational strategy to address this critical training gap.

This presentation introduces a multi-phase explanatory sequential mixed-methods study that applies IVR to enhance undergraduate nursing students’ competencies in newcomer mental health care. The first phase involved developing the simulation using evidence from an integrative review and a participatory co-design process that engaged clinicians, educators, students, IVR experts, and patient-partners. The second phase examined the simulation’s acceptability and preliminary impact among students at the University of Saskatchewan and McGill University using a one-group pre/post design with standardized measures. The third phase, grounded in interpretive description, draws on semi-structured individual interviews to generate deeper insight into learner experiences and the perceived relevance of the simulation to real-world practice. By integrating findings across phases, this research highlights how IVR can support more culturally attuned, equitable mental health care education for future nurses. The webinar will outline the methodology, share overall results, and discuss implications and directions for future research.