Effects of virtual reality interventions on mental health outcomes among healthcare workers in hospital settings: a systematic review

Background Healthcare workers (HCWs), such as nurses and medical doctors in hospital settings routinely experience significant psychological stress, anxiety, and burnout, a situation greatly intensified since the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as an innovative intervention for promoting mental health. Yet the effects of VR-based interventions on mental health among HCWs remain insufficiently synthesized. Methods This systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Comprehensive database searches were performed across PubMed, MEDLINE, Ovid, CINAHL, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar for studies published from 2020 to August 2025. Methodological quality was appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), and a narrative synthesis approach was adopted due to heterogeneity in interventions and outcomes. Results Ten studies were included, representing diverse international hospital contexts and a range of VR intervention formats, content, and durations. The significant effects could be clustered into the five categories: stress reduction and management, anxiety management, burnout prevention and reduction, enhancement of psychological wellbeing, as well as resilience promotion and skill-building. Eight studies demonstrated that VR interventions led to significant reductions in acute subjective stress and improvements in mood. Anxiety management was addressed in three studies, all of which reported significant decreases in anxiety post-VR exposure. One study targeting burnout prevention showed statistically significant declines in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and increases in work engagement metrics. Qualitative findings further indicated enhanced wellbeing, improved relaxation, and skill-building in coping and resilience. VR interventions were generally well-accepted, feasible to implement, and associated with minimal adverse effects. Discussion This review demonstrates that VR interventions represent a promising approach to supporting the mental health of hospital HCWs. VR enables rapid stress and anxiety alleviation, and when delivered as a sustained program, it may also mitigate burnout and foster resilience. Despite heterogeneity among protocols and outcomes, the favorable acceptability and acute effectiveness of VR underscore its potential for integration into routine staff wellbeing initiatives. Future research should prioritize rigorous, longitudinal, and comparative studies to clarify optimal implementation strategies and long-term impact. Systematic Review Registration https://aspredicted.org/prs9-bynt.pdf , identifier 241831.