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Virtual Reality: a Teaching-learning Strategy for Cognitive Mastery in Airway Trauma Management
Sponsor: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Summary
Airway injury in patients is a high risk and complex medical crisis. Unfortunately, training for airway management in injured patients is challenging. The most effective way of practicing airway management is using mannequins. However, mannequin training is expensive and only occasionally available to medical trainees. The purpose of this study is to determine if Virtual Reality (VR) can be used to educate medical students on airway injury management. VR training will involve managing the care of a patient with an airway injury in an immersive, interactive VR hospital trauma bay. The investigators will compare the knowledge gained from VR training vs. mannequin training. The investigators will also investigate whether VR training teaches students faster than mannequin training. In addition, the investigators will identify factors which might affect learning from VR. Medical students who choose to participate will be randomized (i.e. participant will have a 50% chance to be placed in either group) to be trained with VR or a mannequin. Participants then will be trained on airway injury management using their assigned training approach. One week later, all participants will be assessed on their airway injury management skills using a mannequin. Before and after their sessions, participants will also be asked to complete a questionnaire on their clinical decision-making. Participants who received VR training will also complete a questionnaire about their experience with the VR training. This study will help develop a new approach to airway management training which is cheaper and more easily available to medical trainees than mannequin training. This educational tool could lead to better treatment of airway trauma in future patients.
Official title: Virtual Reality: a Teaching-learning Strategy for Cognitive Mastery in Airway Trauma
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
18 Years - Any
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
40
Start Date
2021-08-01
Completion Date
2026-06
Last Updated
2026-03-16
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Interventions
VR-based simulation
Participants will experience a novel interactive and immersive VR full size trauma bay with an adult patient and healthcare professionals. Immersed in the environment, learners undertake the decision-making steps in managing the medical care for a patient with an airway injury. Learners are first given the case scenario from which they form their own learning goals/plans. They then navigate through the scenario that will provide feedback depending on their actions in the form of either the patient's hemodynamic changes or prompts from healthcare avatars in the scenario. These feedback processes are built-in and designed to promote reflection and reorganization of the learner's decision-making strategies. As learning progresses, fewer prompts will be given. At the end of the scenario, evaluation algorithms pre-programmed into the VR-based simulation will be displayed.
Mannequin-based simulation
Participants will experience a mannequin-based scenario practice which is the current gold standard in medical education. The trauma airway management scenario will match the VR environment and sequence of events.
Locations (1)
Sunnybrook Health Sciences
Toronto, Ontario, Canada