Virtual worlds for teaching the new CPR to high school students

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Virtual Reality Simulation
• Emergency Response Training

Background:

• Traditional medical emergency training methods may lack engagement.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive and interactive learning environments.
• Assessing the efficacy of novel training tools is crucial for improving healthcare education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a virtual 3D world for managing medical emergencies.
• To compare learning outcomes between two distinct virtual environments.
• To assess student immersion, usability, flow, and self-efficacy in a medical emergency simulation.

Main Methods:

• A virtual 3D world for medical emergency management was developed.
• Twenty-four high school students participated in the study across the USA and Sweden.
• Data were collected on immersion, usability, flow, self-assessed flow, and self-efficacy using statistical analysis (Mann Whitney U test).

Main Results:

• Students reported high immersion and ease of use in the online simulation.
• The RHS group showed significantly higher scores for flow and self-assessed flow compared to the HG group (p=.001 and .023).
• The HG group demonstrated significantly higher self-efficacy post-training (p=.016), while males in the RHS group outperformed females in flow metrics (p=.006 and p=.023).

Conclusions:

• Virtual 3D environments, specifically MMOS (Massively Multiplayer Online Simulations), show promise for medical emergency education.
• The study highlights the potential of VR simulations to enhance learning experiences and specific skill development in emergency response.
• Further research can explore optimizing VR environments for diverse learning needs and improving self-efficacy in medical training.