Department of Surgery, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
BMC Emerg Med. 2024 Sep 27;24(1):176. doi: 10.1186/s12873-024-01092-w.
Healthcare providers, including medical students, should maintain their basic life support (BLS) skills and be able to perform BLS in case of cardiac arrest. Research shows that the use of virtual reality (VR) has advantages such as improved accessibility, practice with lifelike situations, and real-time feedback during individual training sessions. A VR BLS module incorporating these advantages, called Virtual Life Support, has been developed especially for the medical domain. Virtual Life Support was collaboratively developed by software developers and stakeholders within the field of medical education. For this study, we explored whether the first version of this module capitalised on the advantages of VR and aimed to develop an understanding of barriers to feasibility of use.
This study was conducted to assess the feasibility of employing Virtual Life Support for medical training and pinpoint potential obstacles. Four groups of stakeholders were included through purposive sampling: physicians, BLS instructors, educational experts, and medical students. Participants performed BLS on a BLS mannequin while using Virtual Life Support and were interviewed directly afterwards using semi-structured questions. The data was coded and analysed using thematic analysis.
Thematic saturation was reached after seventeen interviews were conducted. The codes were categorised into four themes: introduction, content, applicability, and acceptability/tolerability. Sixteen barriers for the use of Virtual Life Support were found and subsequently categorised into must-have (restraining function, i.e. necessary to address) and nice to have features (non-essential elements to consider addressing).
The study offers valuable insights into redesigning Virtual Life Support for Basic Life Support training, specifically tailored for medical students and healthcare providers, using a primarily qualitative approach. The findings suggest that the benefits of virtual reality, such as enhanced realism and immersive learning, can be effectively integrated into a single training module. Further development and validation of VR BLS modules, such as the one evaluated in this study, have the potential to revolutionise BLS training. This could significantly improve both the quality of skills and the accessibility of training, ultimately enhancing preparedness for real-life emergency scenarios.
医疗保健提供者，包括医学生，应保持其基本生命支持（BLS）技能，并能够在心脏骤停时进行 BLS。研究表明，虚拟现实（VR）的使用具有优势，例如提高可及性、在逼真的情况下进行练习以及在个人培训课程中实时反馈。专门为医学领域开发的具有这些优势的 VR BLS 模块称为虚拟生命支持（Virtual Life Support）。虚拟生命支持由软件开发商和医学教育领域的利益相关者共同开发。在这项研究中，我们探讨了该模块的第一个版本是否利用了 VR 的优势，并旨在了解使用的可行性障碍。
本研究旨在评估使用虚拟生命支持进行医学培训的可行性，并确定潜在障碍。通过目的性抽样，包括四个利益相关者群体：医生、BLS 指导员、教育专家和医学生。参与者在 BLS 模型上使用虚拟生命支持进行 BLS，并在之后直接使用半结构化问题进行访谈。使用主题分析对数据进行编码和分析。
在进行了 17 次访谈后达到了主题饱和。这些代码被分为四个主题：介绍、内容、适用性和可接受性/耐受性。发现了 16 个使用虚拟生命支持的障碍，并将其进一步分为必须有（约束功能，即解决问题的必要条件）和最好有（非必要考虑解决的要素）特征。
本研究主要采用定性方法，深入探讨了重新设计虚拟生命支持用于基本生命支持培训的问题，特别针对医学生和医疗保健提供者。研究结果表明，虚拟现实的优势，如增强的现实感和沉浸式学习，可以有效地整合到单个培训模块中。进一步开发和验证 VR BLS 模块，如本研究中评估的模块，有可能彻底改变 BLS 培训。这可以显著提高技能质量和培训的可及性，最终增强对现实紧急情况的准备。
