Virtual reality gaming for medical students in the time of pandemic
Published: 05 Aug 2020
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, medical educators currently face the challenge of balancing practical learning experiences while ensuring the safety of students by minimising their exposure to contagion. This has led to a shrinking number of opportunities for students to pick up on inter-professional communication in clinical settings.
To overcome increased clinical restrictions, educators at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine have created an innovative virtual reality (VR) gaming system for medical students to acquire the understanding of patient safety and the importance of inter-professional communications in complex, hard-to-simulate surgical settings.
Known as the PAtient Safety aSInter-Professional Training (PASS-IT), this digital gaming system enables students to experience the process of patient safety as they immerse themselves in the operating theatre scenario and learn the entire flow of the peri-operative setting, from dental clearance to anaesthesia evaluation, and the handling of sharps during surgery and the safe conduct of operations.
“PASS-IT’s gamified style lets multiple learners be immersed in situations where they are given the opportunity to participate in what would usually be a highly restricted environment. With the COVID-19 situation, students have also been removed from these settings of practical learning due to the risk of exposing them to aerosol-generating procedures. This VR system is a good tool to help the students consolidate their learning despite increased clinical restrictions,” said Associate Professor Alfred Kow, a surgeon and Assistant Dean (Education) of NUS Medicine and one of the educators spearheading the initiative.
“This tool can also allow students to make mistakes, learn in a safe environment and ensure that they are competent before they enter actual clinical environment to care for patients,” – Assoc Prof Alfred Kow
In PASS-IT, students don VR headsets and wield hand-held controllers to interact with each other in real-time. Their physical movements and actions are tracked and displayed in real-time for visualisation and evaluation.
With the start of Phase II of Singapore’s reopening, the PASS-IT programme was piloted with a cohort of 36 third-year medical students who had just completed their clinical rotations in surgery and a group of 56 fourth-year medical students during their Phase IV Anaesthesia posting. The results were encouraging, with students showing improved understanding of peri-operative patient safety after the training. The VR training has also elevated their appreciation for effective communication between healthcare workers. In addition, the majority of students positively-rated the use of VR technology to enhance their knowledge of patient safety.
“Medical students have not been allowed into the operating theatre during their Anaesthesia posting as a result of the COVID-19 situation. The introduction of PASS-IT VR system has been timely as it gave the students a unique opportunity to continue the operating theatre learning experience virtually in a safe and structured manner. This innovative VR tool can certainly complement the operating theatre learning experience when the current restrictions are lifted,” added Assistant Professor Terry Pan from the Department of Anaesthesia at NUS Medicine.
