Effectiveness of teaching basic life support resuscitation using virtual reality - a randomized controlled trial.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Emergency Medicine
• Virtual Reality Applications

Background:

• Basic Life Support (BLS) skills are crucial for emergency response and survival rates.
• Traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training methods are widely used, but their long-term effectiveness varies.
• Limited data exists on the efficacy of virtual reality (VR) for teaching BLS and CPR procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the short-term and three-month didactic effectiveness of VR technology in teaching BLS procedures and chest compressions.
• To compare the learning outcomes and skill retention between VR training and traditional training methods.
• To assess participant satisfaction with VR-based versus traditional CPR training.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 205 participants (73.91% women, mean age 21.80 years) was conducted.
• Participants were allocated to either a VR training group or a traditional training group.
• Knowledge and practical skills were assessed immediately after training and again at three months using checklists and statistical analyses (α=0.05).

Main Results:

• Immediately after training, traditional methods yielded higher overall resuscitation quality scores (67.0%) compared to VR (45.61%, p<0.001), though knowledge levels were comparable (p=0.269).
• At three months, no significant intergroup differences in resuscitation quality were observed (p=0.218), with traditional group at 60.32% and VR group at 54.32%.
• Notably, chest compression quality decreased after traditional training but improved after VR training over the three months.

Conclusions:

• VR-based CPR training demonstrates comparable three-month effectiveness to traditional methods, particularly in improving chest compression quality.
• Modern VR technology offers a viable alternative for first aid education, potentially reducing instructor involvement and ensuring procedural consistency for large groups.
• While short-term results favored traditional training, the long-term retention and improvement in specific skills like chest compressions highlight the potential of VR in medical education.