International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background:

One of the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic was the need for quick departmental inductions to allow rotating and redeployed junior doctors to familiarize themselves with rapidly changing departmental environments. We were unable to continue traditional inductions due to various challenges including lack of senior staff to provide the induction due to increased workload; lack of administrative staff to support inductions due to sickness and self-isolation; and lack of physical space under the constraints of social distancing. Thus, an alternative was needed incorporating all aspects of a traditional induction. Video Reality 360 (VR360) technology and video simulation have been on the rise during the last few years in medicine ^[1] and presented an opportunity to produce safe, efficient and flexible inductions for our junior doctors ^[1].

Aims:

The aim of the study was to produce a simulation-based departmental induction programme that would be equally effective to the traditional model.

Method/design:

We started with identifying the components of a departmental induction and then held a multi-disciplinary team meeting to encourage the addition of topics felt to be important and often overlooked. Stakeholders were involved in a needs analysis on the induction material; previous and current departmental junior doctors, the lead pharmacist, medical registrars, emergency physicians, acute physicians, the clinical lead, the medical director and the director of medical education were all contacted with specific questions on content and junior doctors’ needs. Components of the recent General Medical Council surveys were taken into account to allow for a more junior doctor-centred induction. Subsequently, scenarios were designed with input from the directors of simulation and approved by the acute medical unit (AMU) lead. With the help of our colleagues at Hull Institute of Learning & Simulation (HILS) the scenarios were filmed, edited, and filed to produce an educational tool.

Implementation outline:

The end-product of our VR360 induction has been checked by the educational lead of AMU against specific variables and standards and was characterized as ‘much more flexible and a potentially more effective educational tool for junior doctors’ medical induction’. Initial feedback from junior doctors has been very positive; however, further feedback comparing traditional and VR360 induction is needed. Work is ongoing to produce an interactive VR360 induction video with the hope that this could replace face-to-face departmental induction within our hospital.