Virtual Reality-Enhanced Parent Education and Its Effect on Neonatal Intensive Care Practices: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The NICU environment presents significant emotional, educational, and practical challenges for parents of preterm or critically ill neonates. Effective parent education is essential for improving caregiving competence, reducing parental anxiety, and supporting family-integrated neonatal care. However, traditional education methods such as verbal instructions and printed materials may be limited by time constraints, parental stress, and variations in health literacy.

Virtual reality technology provides immersive, interactive educational experiences that may enhance understanding, engagement, and retention of caregiving information. VR simulations can provide parents with guided orientation to NICU equipment, caregiving demonstrations, and exposure to real-life caregiving scenarios in a safe, controlled environment.

This study is designed as a single-center, randomized, parallel-group pilot trial conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit setting. The primary purpose of the trial is to evaluate feasibility outcomes including recruitment, adherence, retention, and VR tolerability, as well as to generate preliminary estimates of effect size and variability to inform future large-scale trials.

Participants assigned to the intervention group will receive a standardized VR education package consisting of immersive orientation and caregiving simulation sessions delivered using a VR headset. Sessions will include demonstrations of routine neonatal care activities and structured debriefing discussions to reinforce learning and address parental questions.

Participants assigned to the control group will receive routine NICU parent education delivered through conventional methods currently implemented in clinical practice.