Healthcare Simulation Technology Specialist Research Articles

Virtual Reality Scenario Design for Distance Learning With Google Poly

Introduction:The COVID-19 pandemic caused a rush to produce online and distance learning activities throughout higher education. Many programs were unprepared for a shift in simulation scenario delivery that allowed immersive clinical training. Virtual reality software and hardware have barriers of cost and knowledge implementation.Objectives:This paper will introduce the techniques to allow healthcare simulation technology specialists to create immersive web-based simulation scenarios using existing equipment to support online and distance learning objectives using the Google Poly platform.Methods:Equirectangular images were shot using a 360-degree video camera or stitched using a smartphone camera. These images of a staged immersive simulation room were loaded into the Google Poly online platform. Curriculum specific design elements were added based on a prior in-person scenario outline. Multiple scenes can be combined into a single virtual scenario that allows a learner to progress through multiple patient encounters or phases of a single patient encounter.Results:A simple web browser interface allows asynchronous navigation of this customized virtual simulation environment using existing PCs or smart phone equipment. This same virtual environment can also be experienced using VR headsets of VR viewers such as Google Cardboard. The Google Poly scene creation platform allows the addition of ‘points of interest’ that allows learners to view specific areas of the scene to see images that add additional detail or even play back media such as heart and lung sounds.Conclusion:Existing free open-source tools such as Google Poly can allow simulation centers to create immersive clinical simulation scenarios that are sharable as a distance learning solution to augment clinical experience.

Bug Busters: Who you gonna call? Professional development for healthcare simulation technology specialists

SimGHOSTS introduced Bug Busters to train healthcare simulation technology specialists (HSTSs) as a way to showcase experienced HSTSs’ approaches to technology troubleshooting. This competition functions as a collaborative exchange of technology and operational solutions. It has been stated that Bug Busters is an equivalent to SimWars but for technology specialists. The competition starts with groups of individuals that function in the role of HSTSs. They are given a set of tasks that need to be completed within 10 min prior to a pending simulation scenario. The simulation room is designed with planned technical glitches, equipment that is defective, or inappropriate setup. There are multiple rounds of competition at a group level. In the final round, individual HSTSs from the advancing group complete challenges to win the competition. The number of correct tasks completed is used as the primary score determinant with time being the tie breaker. During each round, a set of distractors is introduced for a time bonus, asking technical or simulation-based questions that might be encountered in daily work. The competition demonstrates the need for HSTSs and provides an innovative way to acknowledge the complexity of their work and assess their skills. To ensure that the field of simulation continues to expand, training opportunities must be provided for all those involved in simulation. Bug Busters is one way to train and encourage “out of the box” thinking for HSTSs.

Development and Review of the Chest Tube High-Feedback Educational Simulation Trainer (CHEST).

Emergency medicine physicians must receive training in chest tube placement. This life-saving skill must be completed quickly and competently to prevent morbidity and mortality. Training on live patients is no longer an appropriate or acceptable practice. Current training devices have been noted to be costly, may be difficult to store, or may require time-consuming cleanup or setup. Fifteen Chest tube High-feedback Educational Simulation Trainers were created. Frames were made from wood and PVC, and soft tissue layers were designed using silicone and polyurethane foam. Nine training sites volunteered to test the model and provided feedback on the acceptability of the task trainer for skill training. Survey findings demonstrated that the model was realistic for teaching, portable, and was easy to use and maintain. In our model, the outer skin was noted to tear easily, thus limiting its use for suture training. Overall programs reported that they would use this model if it was available for the same or lower cost than current models. An inexpensive task trainer was created that was easy to store, quick to set up, durable, easy to clean, and rated as effective at training the skill of chest tube insertion.

Author response to published editorials on ASPiH standards for simulation-based education.

We would like to thank the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL), The Gathering of Healthcare Simulation Technology Specialists (SimGHOSTS) and the Association of Standardised Patient Educators (ASPE) for their supportive and helpful reflections on our standard-setting article. Simulation-based education (SBE) is widely acknowledged as a key educational modality that has led to a paradigm shift in healthcare education. Despite its popularity and increasing application, it is still too often used only as a one-off interaction with learners. The use and evaluation of simulation as part of an overarching approach to patient safety has been insufficiently explored. There are few studies linking SBE to clinical outcomes.1 There remains poor capture of data of operational or cost-effectiveness of SBE and we continue to be unclear as to how best to deliver SBE as not all training programmes produce benefit.1 2 Underlying many of the issues highlighted is a lack of standardisation in the approach to SBE with failure to adopt best practice in design and delivery of SBE programmes.1 It is this challenge that the Association for Simulated Practice3 in Healthcare (ASPiH) took up in 2015, which resulted …