Virtual Reality Simulation in Pediatric Resuscitation for Pre-hospital Providers.

Abstract

This technical report explored the feasibility and utility of virtual reality (VR) pediatric resuscitation simulations for pre-hospital providers during their scheduledshifts. To our knowledge, neither the pediatric resuscitation VR simulation nor the feasibility of in situ, on-shift training with VR had been previously evaluated in pre-hospital providers. VR headset was available at an urban city fire station for 10 days where a total of 60 pre-hospital providers werescheduled to work. Providers were made aware of the VR module but no formal demonstration was done. There were no facilitators. Participants filled out an anonymous retrospective pre- and post-survey using a five-point Likert scale, rating their confidencefrom "not confident" to "very confident" in recognizing and managing pediatric emergencies. We found thatVR simulation for pediatric resuscitation was a feasible training tool to use in situ as 63% of the providers were able to use iton shift. Furthermore, self-reported confidence increased after the training where responses of"very confident" increased from 20% to 30% for emergency medical techniciansand 55% to 63% for paramedics.