The Effect of Virtual Reality-Assisted Escape Room Experience

Basic Life Support (BLS) encompasses life-saving interventions performed in emergency situations such as sudden cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. The effective and accurate delivery of BLS requires healthcare personnel to continuously update and improve their knowledge and skills. Traditional BLS training methods may not always adequately support students in engaging with realistic scenarios and developing critical decision-making skills. To address this limitation, virtual reality (VR) technologies have recently been integrated into educational processes as an innovative approach. By providing interactive and experiential learning environments, VR can enhance students' clinical skills and promote knowledge retention. Particularly in the context of CPR training, the literature has demonstrated that VR can improve the ability to perform technical parameters such as compression depth, rate, and speed accurately, while also increasing learning satisfaction.

In recent years, gamification has also emerged as an innovative educational approach aimed at reducing the digital gap between students and educators. Within gamification-based learning, escape room applications provide interactive learning environments designed to enhance students' problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills.

The aim of this study is to improve the BLS knowledge and skills of associate degree dialysis program students through a VR-supported escape room scenario. The study is planned using a pretest-posttest experimental design and will be conducted with 60 students at the higher education institution where the study will take place between April and July 2026. Data will be collected using a Descriptive Information Form, the Virtual Reality Attitude Scale, and the Game Experience Scale.

Students in the experimental group will experience the VR scenario in groups of three. Each group will consist of one "Operator" and two "Guides." The Guides will monitor the VR screen and provide instructions to the Operator, and the roles may be rotated when necessary. The scenario will be initiated using QR codes and on-screen clues placed in the room and will focus on critical steps of CPR. The Virtual Reality Attitude Scale and Game Experience Scale will be administered to students in the experimental group. The implementation days will be scheduled so that the groups do not overlap, thereby preventing participants from observing clues encountered by other groups. The control group will receive BLS training using traditional methods, including face-to-face instruction and demonstration.

The data will be analyzed using SPSS version 23, and the relationships among variables will be examined using correlation and regression analyses. The study will be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Data collection will commence following approval from the ethics committee and the relevant institutional authorities. Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants, and regular monitoring and evaluation meetings will be conducted by the research team throughout the study.

This study is expected to make an important contribution to the literature by being among the first associate degree-level applications to evaluate the effectiveness of VR-based gamified learning approaches in health education and by offering an innovative model for BLS training. Demonstrating the effectiveness of VR-supported gamification may provide health education institutions with evidence-based justification for updating educational standards and integrating experiential learning approaches of this kind into their curricula.