Emerging research has outlined the possibility for virtual reality (VR) experiences, which situate users into the perspective of someone living with dementia, to enhance dementia awareness. Currently, there is limited VR research that engages care home practitioners. It is imperative this population has high levels of dementia education given their requirements to provide care and support to residents, many of whom will be living with the condition. This paper reports on an exploratory qualitative study designed to elicit the experiences of care home practitioners who engaged with the VR application: ‘A walk through dementia’. Twenty practitioners, across four care homes in the United Kingdom, watched the VR scenarios and provided their views on the experience and the potential for the VR tool to be developed into a wider training programme to support dementia awareness. Data were collected via focus group discussions. Following an inductive thematic analysis, we constructed three themes. These suggested participants perceived the VR application offered them a convincing and immersive experience that was insightful and evocative, and provided ‘next-level’ dementia-awareness training that enabled them to reflect on care practices. Although the findings highlight important challenges for practitioners and developers wishing to use VR within dementia care, they suggest this application may be an engaging experiential learning tool that can provide care home staff with deeper cognitive and emotional awareness of living with dementia. Further work, drawing on these preliminary insights, is required to ensure the VR tool can be incorporated into a training programme that can positively contribute to the ‘dementia-friendly communities’ agenda.

新兴研究概述了虚拟现实 (VR) 体验的可能性，将用户置于痴呆症患者的视角，以提高对痴呆症的认识。目前，涉及养老院从业者的 VR 研究有限。鉴于他们需要为居民提供护理和支持，这一人群必须接受高水平的痴呆症教育，其中许多人将患有这种疾病。本文报告了一项探索性定性研究，旨在引出参与 VR 应用程序的护理院从业者的经验：“走过痴呆症”。来自英国四家养老院的二十名从业者，观看了 VR 场景，并就 VR 工具开发成更广泛的培训计划以支持痴呆症意识的体验和潜力发表了看法。通过焦点小组讨论收集数据。在归纳主题分析之后，我们构建了三个主题。这些建议的参与者认为 VR 应用程序为他们提供了一个令人信服和身临其境的体验，富有洞察力和令人回味，并提供“下一级”痴呆症意识培训，使他们能够反思护理实践。尽管这些发现突出了希望在痴呆症护理中使用 VR 的从业者和开发人员面临的重要挑战，但他们认为该应用程序可能是一种引人入胜的体验式学习工具，可以为护理院工作人员提供对痴呆症患者更深入的认知和情感意识。需要根据这些初步见解开展进一步工作，以确保 VR 工具可以纳入培训计划，从而为“痴呆症友好社区”议程做出积极贡献。