International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

Simulation has always been employed to cover a wide-ranging aspect of the learning objectives in the Emergency Department (ED) curriculum at post-graduate and undergraduate level ^[1]. In a busy environment like our Emergency Department where bedside teaching is not always possible, the learning objectives can be met through the Simulation Extended Reality (XR). XR is particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic when real patients, standardized patients and relatives could not be reached due to the risk of contracting a deadly disease. However, Inter-professional education ^[2] must continue. We can now have our nurses, trainees, health support workers in a large room all connected to one device in a virtual world and be able to deliver teaching to them.

Aim:

The aim of the study was to introduce new healthcare students to the clinical environment through the use of mixed reality devices to ensure familiarity before contact with the real environment and to provide alternative simulation education and ‘bedside’ teaching during disruptive periods like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method/design:

XR is a term that covers augmented reality (AR)/mixed reality (MR), which refers to a set of mobile digital technologies that allow a three-dimensional computer-generated model in the form of a hologram to be overlaid on a real environment ^[1]. This technology can be used to ‘create’ simulated patients for the purpose of learning in an immersive learning environment (ILE). Our learners can have the opportunity to interact with the Holo-patient in proximity thereby bypassing the restrictions of the real clinical environment with all the risk involved, particularly during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Implementation outline:

With the use of a headset such as Google Glasses or the Microsoft HoloLens that projects a hologram into the users’ physical environment, our learners can interact with the mixed reality (XR) world and have clinical encounters with simulated/standard Holo-patients (SHP). With the headset on, the learner can see the patient, hear real sounds from the patient and see objective data/vital signs that can aid clinical reasoning and make the simulated scenario more immersive. A new healthcare worker (student nurse, clinical support worker, doctor on first rotation) will have an immersive experience that bridges virtual and real-world, supplements reality, and has the potential to build confidence and aid learning prior to encountering the real world.