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Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial

BACKGROUND: Although the proper use of hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount for preventing the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, health care personnel have been shown to use incorrect techniques for donning/doffing of PPE and hand hygiene, leading to a large number of infe...

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Autores principales: Birrenbach, Tanja, Zbinden, Josua, Papagiannakis, George, Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K, Müller, Martin, Hautz, Wolf E, Sauter, Thomas Christian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8510143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34623315
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29586
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author Birrenbach, Tanja
Zbinden, Josua
Papagiannakis, George
Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K
Müller, Martin
Hautz, Wolf E
Sauter, Thomas Christian
author_facet Birrenbach, Tanja
Zbinden, Josua
Papagiannakis, George
Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K
Müller, Martin
Hautz, Wolf E
Sauter, Thomas Christian
author_sort Birrenbach, Tanja
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although the proper use of hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount for preventing the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, health care personnel have been shown to use incorrect techniques for donning/doffing of PPE and hand hygiene, leading to a large number of infections among health professionals. Education and training are difficult owing to the social distancing restrictions in place, shortages of PPE and testing material, and lack of evidence on optimal training. Virtual reality (VR) simulation can offer a multisensory, 3-D, fully immersive, and safe training opportunity that addresses these obstacles. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to explore the short- and long-term effectiveness of a fully immersive VR simulation versus a traditional learning method regarding a COVID-19–related skill set and media-specific variables influencing training outcomes. METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized controlled pilot study on medical students (N=29; intervention VR training, n=15, vs control video-based instruction, n=14) to compare the performance of hand disinfection, nasopharyngeal swab taking, and donning/doffing of PPE before and after training and 1 month later as well as variables of media use. RESULTS: Both groups performed significantly better after training, with the effect sustained over one month. After training, the VR group performed significantly better in taking a nasopharyngeal swab, scoring a median of 14 out of 17 points (IQR 13-15) versus 12 out of 17 points (IQR 11-14) in the control group, P=.03. With good immersion and tolerability of the VR simulation, satisfaction was significantly higher in the VR group compared to the control group (median score of User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire 27/30, IQR 23-28, vs 22/30, IQR 20-24, in the control group; P=.01). CONCLUSIONS: VR simulation was at least as effective as traditional learning methods in training medical students while providing benefits regarding user satisfaction. These results add to the growing body of evidence that VR is a useful tool for acquiring simple and complex clinical skills.
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spelling pubmed-85101432021-11-02 Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial Birrenbach, Tanja Zbinden, Josua Papagiannakis, George Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K Müller, Martin Hautz, Wolf E Sauter, Thomas Christian JMIR Serious Games Original Paper BACKGROUND: Although the proper use of hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE) is paramount for preventing the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, health care personnel have been shown to use incorrect techniques for donning/doffing of PPE and hand hygiene, leading to a large number of infections among health professionals. Education and training are difficult owing to the social distancing restrictions in place, shortages of PPE and testing material, and lack of evidence on optimal training. Virtual reality (VR) simulation can offer a multisensory, 3-D, fully immersive, and safe training opportunity that addresses these obstacles. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to explore the short- and long-term effectiveness of a fully immersive VR simulation versus a traditional learning method regarding a COVID-19–related skill set and media-specific variables influencing training outcomes. METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized controlled pilot study on medical students (N=29; intervention VR training, n=15, vs control video-based instruction, n=14) to compare the performance of hand disinfection, nasopharyngeal swab taking, and donning/doffing of PPE before and after training and 1 month later as well as variables of media use. RESULTS: Both groups performed significantly better after training, with the effect sustained over one month. After training, the VR group performed significantly better in taking a nasopharyngeal swab, scoring a median of 14 out of 17 points (IQR 13-15) versus 12 out of 17 points (IQR 11-14) in the control group, P=.03. With good immersion and tolerability of the VR simulation, satisfaction was significantly higher in the VR group compared to the control group (median score of User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire 27/30, IQR 23-28, vs 22/30, IQR 20-24, in the control group; P=.01). CONCLUSIONS: VR simulation was at least as effective as traditional learning methods in training medical students while providing benefits regarding user satisfaction. These results add to the growing body of evidence that VR is a useful tool for acquiring simple and complex clinical skills. JMIR Publications 2021-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8510143/ /pubmed/34623315 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29586 Text en ©Tanja Birrenbach, Josua Zbinden, George Papagiannakis, Aristomenis K Exadaktylos, Martin Müller, Wolf E Hautz, Thomas Christian Sauter. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (https://games.jmir.org), 08.10.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Serious Games, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on https://games.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Birrenbach, Tanja
Zbinden, Josua
Papagiannakis, George
Exadaktylos, Aristomenis K
Müller, Martin
Hautz, Wolf E
Sauter, Thomas Christian
Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title_full Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title_fullStr Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title_full_unstemmed Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title_short Effectiveness and Utility of Virtual Reality Simulation as an Educational Tool for Safe Performance of COVID-19 Diagnostics: Prospective, Randomized Pilot Trial
title_sort effectiveness and utility of virtual reality simulation as an educational tool for safe performance of covid-19 diagnostics: prospective, randomized pilot trial
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8510143/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34623315
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29586
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