Enhancing occupational safety and health training: a guideline for virtual reality integration

Training in the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) sector is crucial for minimizing workplace hazards and ensuring employee well-being. Virtual Reality (VR) emerges as a training tool that can enhance learning outcomes and simulate hazardous scenarios safely. However, several aspects must be taken into consideration when implementing VR-based training solutions. The paper investigates how to effectively design, develop, integrate, and validate a VR OSH training tool. To this aim, a comprehensive guideline of 9 key elements articulated in 29 items is proposed. Every element and item is retrieved from analyzing the existing literature on the topic using a systematic approach. The result is a comprehensive guide to consider all these aspects from the outset of design, in a cohesive, complete, and tailored manner. This formalization is intended to facilitate the advancement of research and implementation of these solutions, which to date have been largely confined to prototypes or lack real practical application.