Abstract
PurposeSenior nursing and medical interns’ lack of familiarity and confidence with respect to practicing universal precaution for the prevention of occupational needlestick or sharp injuries may harm themselves. Trainees’ self-reported needlestick or sharp injury rate was known to be especially high during the first 2 months of internship in Taiwan. This prospective cohort study aimed to assess the effect of newly developed virtual reality (VR) game, which uses Gagne’s learning model to improve universal precaution for needlestick or sharp injury prevention and decrease the rates of needle stick or sharp injuries in new-coming medical and nursing interns in Taiwan.MethodsFrom 2017 to 2019, the VR system was developed and applied in training of 59 new-coming nursing and 50 medical interns. Occupational needlestick or sharp injury prevention was sought to be achieved through a game of right and wrong choices for safe or unsafe universal precaution behaviors.ResultsIn comparison with medical interns, a higher proportion of nursing interns had past experiences of deep occupational needlestick or sharp injury. Before VR training, the familiarity and confidence for needlestick or sharp injury prevention were higher among nursing interns than medical interns. Trainees with past experiences of deep needlestick or sharp injury exhibited better performance on the accuracy rate and time needed to complete 20 decisions than those without past experiences in VR practice. All trainees showed an improved performance after VR training. A high proportion of trainees reported that the VR-based training significantly decreased their anxiety about needlestick or sharp injury prevention.ConclusionThis self-developed VR game system using Gagne’s flow improved universal precaution for needlestick or sharp injury prevention and reduced the needlestick or sharp injury rates in the first 2 months of nursing and medical internship.
Highlights
This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of game-based virtual reality (VR) training on universal precaution (UP) for occupational needlestick or sharp injuries (NSI) prevention through Gagne’s flow
In comparison with medical interns, a higher proportion of nursing interns reported having a previous experience of deep occupational NSI during instructor-supervised clinical rotations
Pre-and post-comparison study of virtual reality training Before VR training, the familiarity and confidence levels in practicing UP for occupational NSI prevention were higher among nursing interns than medical interns
Summary
NSI are a major cause of occupational injuries for healthcare workers worldwide. The risk of occupational NSI among junior doctors was 3 times that of senior doctors. During their training period, 27%–40% of nursing and medical interns had a history of occupational NSI [1,2]. Lectures are combined with simulation-based practice with mannequin in the skills lab to provide training on occupational NSI prevention before nursing and medical internship [3]. Even though most of the trainees report to have received training, the occupational NSI rate remained persistently high [4]. More effective and feasible training tools and instructional flow are emerging to reduce the high occupational NSI rate among new nursing and medical interns
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