Donning and Doffing of Personal Protective Equipment: Perceived Effectiveness of Virtual Simulation Training to Decrease COVID-19 Transmission and Contraction

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in the knowledge of correct donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE) among healthcare workers, causing hospitals to ramp up training. However, social distancing measures forced most institutions and workplaces to shift to remote operations, allowing only essential personnel onsite. Virtual simulation is a growing trend in healthcare simulation education, even more so in this pandemic era. Yet, we have found no evidence of the perceived effectiveness of virtual simulation for training healthcare providers in the proper donning and doffing of PPE. This study aims to determine learner perceptions of the effectiveness of a virtual simulation PPE training module. Methods To address this gap, we used a virtual simulation training module in an online format to determine the perceived efficacy of this method of instruction with the contribution of a variety of healthcare providers and trainees, including physicians, surgeons, pharmacists, dentists, and nurses. Results We found a statistically significant difference in the confidence level of observing best practices of donning and doffing PPE before and after the training sessions. We also found that participants believe virtual simulation can be an effective educational tool for clinical skills. Conclusions This paper presents an international, guideline-based virtual simulation training module that can serve to educate, train, and assess healthcare workers in the proper sequence and technique of donning (putting on), doffing (removing), and disposing of PPE without contaminating themselves or others.