Table 2.

Examples of students’ responses that demonstrate place illusion after completion of the VR lab to the question “How did you feel to receive information about the diagnosis from Dr. Chatterjee?”

How did it feel to receive information about the diagnosis from Dr. Chatterjee?
Place illusion: The illusion of being in the virtually rendered space even though you know that you are not there
I felt like the physician did a great job trying to work everything with the family, but I wish she spoke more to me as the patient. I also found it difficult with my daughter there because she was very aggressive instead of being able to listen and try to work through it
I could feel the sense of helplessness, sadness, anger, and confusion coming from the patient’s daughter and wife. They both clearly wanted to continue to fight the disease, and were very blindsided by the doctor’s diagnosis of the advancing cancer
What frustrated me the most was not being able to talk and having my daughter and wife talk for me. I wanted to ask questions and I was getting a little embarrassed by how frustrated my daughter and wife were without asking productive questions. I know they were more emotional, but not being able to talk for myself was rough
I felt like my daughter made it more about herself than worrying about me. I felt scared and disappointed
The environment was tense & I could feel the how worried the family was
I felt hurt. I felt disappointed and helpless. Looking into the doctor’s eyes as she delivered the news was a powerful experience. I could feel how the energy of the room changed and the emotions of everyone who was there. I saw the reactions of my wife and my daughter
Plausibility: the illusion that the events there are what they seem to be (they are really happening)
It was scary and definitely made me sad. I didn’t want my family members to know that I felt sad and depressed, so I tried to hide away my feeling
The whole experience felt very real. The doctor seemed to drag out the process of breaking serious news as well as disregarding me because I was unable to talk. After a while, it seemed like the doctor was only speaking with my daughter and my wife
Frustrating. Mostly because I couldn’t really speak and voice my own opinion
It felt like having cold water poured over your head. You take a second to understand what’s going on and then you are filled with emotion and succumb to the fact that it is too late to stop what has happened
I felt very disappointed, as if I was holding onto a hope that I was improving my health, but hearing the opposite news made me feel that the remaining hope was lost
It felt awful. Going into it, I was hopeful to hear that there was something more that could be done; an experimental trial, surgery, anything
I felt hopelessness and despair. Why me? Why did this disease pick me? Did I do anything wrong in my life that I was punished like this?