Background <p>The popularity and use of virtual reality in nursing education is on the rise. However, how virtual reality assists nursing students’ learning is still unclear. This study aimed to explore how virtual reality stimulates learning through undergraduate nursing students’ experiences.</p> Methods <p>A qualitative descriptive study was conducted. A purposive sampling was employed to recruit 36&#xa0;second-year nursing students at a university in northern Taiwan. A semi-structured interview guide was used. Three focus groups were digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis was adopted to analyze the interview content.</p> Results <p>Three themes emerged: educational entertainment, triggered motivation for enhanced learning, and technological concerns and challenges.</p> Conclusion <p>This study contributes qualitative insights into students’ attitudes and experiences with virtual reality and extends knowledge about how virtual reality helps nursing students’ learning. Virtual reality can be implemented in nursing education to increase nursing students’ learning motivation. Educators and developers could design different virtual reality simulators to teach different nursing skills to nursing students. Future research can focus on developing diverse virtual reality interventions to support student learning across a broader range of nursing competencies and clinical scenarios.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>