45 Simulation XR: An Extended Reality Learning Experience

Abstract

Simulation has always been employed to cover a wide-ranging aspect of the learning objectives in the Emergency Department (ED) curriculum at post-graduate and undergraduate level The aim of the study was to introduce new healthcare students to the clinical environment through the use of mixed reality devices to ensure familiarity before contact with the real environment and to provide alternative simulation education and ‘bedside’ teaching during disruptive periods like the COVID-19 pandemic.XR is a term that covers augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality (MR), which refers to a set of mobile digital technologies that allow a three-dimensional computer-generated model in the form of a hologram to be overlaid on a real environment With the use of a headset such as Google Glasses or the Microsoft HoloLens that projects a hologram into the users’ physical environment, our learners can interact with the mixed reality (XR) world and have clinical encounters with simulated/standard Holo-patients (SHP). With the headset on, the learner can see the patient, hear real sounds from the patient and see objective data/vital signs that can aid clinical reasoning and make the simulated scenario more immersive. A new healthcare worker (student nurse, clinical support worker, doctor on first rotation) will have an immersive experience that bridges virtual and real-world, supplements reality, and has the potential to build confidence and aid learning prior to encountering the real world.