An Analysis of Face Validity for the Mobile App Scenario and Biomimetic Simulator in the Burns for Providers Program

The military funded a novel burn educational program called the Burns for Providers Program (BP2), which teaches cognitive skills via a scenario-based mobile app and psychomotor skills via biomimetic tabletop simulators. We sought to establish face validity for these prototypes. Instruments have face validity if subject matter experts (SMEs) feel they have verisimilitude for whatever they purport to represent. Booths were purchased at the 2024 American Burn Association and Southern Region Burn meetings. Interested SMEs (defined as completion of a burn fellowship or >3 years in a practice consisting of >25% burns) engaged with prototypes depicting a patient presenting to a Role 2 or civilian emergency department with a femur fracture and a 44% burn. Subject matter experts completed a 17-item survey consisting of positive statements about the prototypes, which they rated from 1 = "Strongly disagree" to 5 = "Strongly agree." These procedures were repeated for SMEs at the United States Army's Institute of Surgical Research. Seventy-seven SMEs with 12.4 + 10.1 years' experience made up the study cohort (89% civilian, 11% military). The majority were nurses (43%), burn surgeons (26%), or advanced practice providers (APPs) (9%). Overall, 88% of SMEs answered 17/17 positively phrased statements interrogating the software and model's importance, verisimilitude, and effectiveness with "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree;" 8% had at least 1 "neutral" response with the remainder being agreement; 4% registered at least one "disagree" response to the 17 positively phrased statements. The resources, environment, and injuries portrayed in the prototype BP2 mobile app scenario and tabletop simulator appear to have high face validity.