7 Ways Your VR Simulation Might Be Failing Future Nurses

Future nurses need to be able to step into a hospital feeling like they have the experience and confidence it takes to communicate with a patient with Alzheimer’s, understand the protocol for administering a diabetes medication, and recognize the critical signs of sepsis in an infant.

VR simulation can and does help prepare nurse learners for all these scenarios and more. But, only if the platform is hitting the mark by offering everything needed to adequately prepare them.

What if it isn’t? Here are seven ways your VR simulation might be failing future nurses—not your fault—but an issue with the platform, and what to look for instead. 

1. Learners Feel Unprepared Entering VR

Do learners seem confused or anxious the moment they put on the headset?

That may be a sign that your VR platform isn’t effectively supporting prebriefing—the essential step that prepares learners for a safe, focused simulation experience.

The Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™ (HSSOBP) emphasize that prebriefing is critical for establishing psychological safety and setting expectations. But if the VR experience drops learners straight into a scenario with little orientation, poor UX, or no opportunity to preview objectives, even a well-planned prebrief can fall flat.

Learners need time and structure to acclimate so they can focus on clinical reasoning, not just figuring out how to move their hands. When done right, prebriefing - and the technology behind it - builds confidence and turns hesitation into openness.

2. Learners Are Afraid to Make Mistakes

Are your learners so focused on navigating the tech that they hesitate to think like real nurses?

The platform may be creating a fear-based environment, where anxiety about “doing it wrong” overshadows learning. Shame, confusion, and disengagement don’t build clinical confidence. But they can result from a clunky design that pulls learners out of the experience, like forcing them to select a blood pressure cuff from a drop-down menu instead of physically putting it on.

The right simulation environment encourages curiosity, reflection, and safe exploration. When learners feel supported by intuitive tech, they’re more willing to learn from their choices. That freedom to make mistakes, without judgment, builds clinical reasoning, resilience, and the confidence to show up fully in real-world care.

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3. Not Emphasizing Technical and Soft Skills

Are learners practicing procedures without communicating, collaborating, or using critical thinking skills?

They’re only getting half the picture. Nursing is both science and art. Learners need to practice following clinical protocols, like scrubbing the hub, inserting an IV, or administering medication. But they also need to develop soft skills, like therapeutic communication, empathy, and teamwork

A great VR simulation trains both. Learners should be talking to patients, explaining procedures, not just treating them. They should be working through conflict like that Alzheimer’s patient refusing medication, triaging care when they recognize those signs of sepsis, and walking through how they’re going to administer medication to the patient with effective therapeutic communication.

4. Ignores Cultural Humility and Inclusive Care

Is there a missed opportunity to practice cultural humility and inclusive care? 

The simulation is leaving future nurses unprepared for the real world. Today’s healthcare settings are diverse, and cultural competence/humility are core nursing competencies. When VR ignores differences in race, ethnicity, gender identity, social context, and more, the application of Social Determinants of Health is missing - and so is the chance to treat the whole person.

When done right, inclusive VR simulations expose learners to a wide range of patients. Think: a transgender patient navigating gender-affirming care, an unhoused veteran with complex social needs, or a patient with developmental delays who requires adapted communication. Scenarios like these help learners build empathy, challenge assumptions, and practice delivering culturally responsive, patient-centered care.

5. There’s No Sense of Urgency 

Are the signs of deterioration unclear or easy to ignore?

Your simulation may be missing the realism that drives clinical judgment. In real life, patients don’t wait quietly for a nurse’s next step. Babies cry. Patients show signs like discoloration, swelling, or labored breathing. Learners must feel the pressure, even in a virtual hospital room. It’s okay to make them sweat a bit as they navigate their next step.

When simulations create a true sense of urgency through evolving patient cues, emotional realism, and time-sensitive decisions, learners build the clinical instincts they’ll need in practice. This should, of course, be balanced with psychological safety, where learners feel this sense of urgency but also know if they mess up, they can course correct or learn from it.

6. The Simulation Doesn’t Match Learning Objectives

Is your program preparing RNs, but the simulation feels like it was built for medical students?

If so, your students may be spending valuable time on content that doesn’t align with what they actually need to learn. When simulations aren’t tailored to learner level or nursing-specific competencies, it creates a disconnect between practice and performance expectations.

Your VR platform should support scenarios that match your program’s goals, whether that’s foundational skill-building, advanced clinical judgment, or soft skills like communication and prioritization. Even better? It should allow for easy-to-use customization so that you can align each scenario with your curriculum and learning outcomes. When simulations map directly to what students are learning in the classroom and what they’ll face in clinicals, the impact is deeper, the engagement is higher, and the learning sticks.

7. Learning Stops When the Headset Comes Off

Are you leading thoughtful debriefs, but finding the VR platform doesn’t give you the tools or data to go deeper?

Debriefing is where the real learning happens, and nurse educators know that better than anyone. It’s the moment where learners make meaning of the experience, unpack decisions, and translate simulation into practice. But even the best debrief can fall short if the platform doesn’t support it with the right insights.

When VR includes built-in tools like performance reports, time-stamped actions, and clinical cues, it empowers educators to lead more focused, reflective conversations. Instead of guessing what happened during the scenario, you can guide students through exactly where they succeeded, what they missed, and how they can improve.

You’re doing the debrief—now the platform needs to meet you there.

Final Thoughts

As a nurse educator, you’re already doing the heavy lifting: planning scenarios, leading debriefs, and guiding students toward clinical excellence. But if your simulation platform isn’t supporting those efforts with the right tools, realism, and flexibility, it’s holding your program (and your learners) back.

UbiSim is the first VR simulation platform built specifically for nursing education. Designed by nurses, for nurses, UbiSim combines true-to-life patient interactions, customizable scenarios, and immersive realism that supports both clinical skill and soft skill development. It meets you where you are, so your learners can step into practice prepared, confident, and ready to care.

Because your learners deserve to think, feel, and act like nurses before they ever set foot in a clinical setting.