Comprehensive Summary

To create an interactive platform for Operating Theatre via Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

Project Justification

It is In the last 2 years, authentic clinical exposure has taken a hit due to Covid-19 pandemic resulting in reduced opportunities for learning in the actual environment making what was already a challenge become more unachievable. Face to face teaching in the classroom as well as the hospital came to a halt. Students face new challenges as they navigate through medical school, bringing new elements that they must get accustomed to each semester. One such new challenge is the operating theatre which is an area in the hospital that is a world of its own with its own specific rules and regulations to ensure patient safety. The operating theatre is an entirely “new world” experience for a medical student. Being a new environment with new set of unfamiliar rules and mostly the “OT culture being so different from what they are used to, poses a major challenge for students”. Operating theatre is a classroom that students are generally not used to and can be uncomfortable especially when they are unable to fit in because of the new environment, culture and the DOs and DON’Ts. Past studies in this area have shown that intimidation, sense of exclusion, lack of preparation and confusion about learning objectives, negatively influence medical students’ learning experience. To overcome challenges of the OT learning, a simulated OT experience was initiated, which did support their OT experience when they entered the actual OT. However, there were challenges to this in that it was a one-time timetabled session with a stable patient to introduce patient safety precautions (e.g., safe surgery checklist), preoperative anaesthesia assessment, monitoring, induction, maintenance, and reversal of anaesthesia. There was no opportunity to experience more complex cases and situations and though it could be arranged, there were other factors to be considered like availability of support staff, preparation for the specified scenario, time taken for the preparation, lack of flexibility of practicing on students’ own time, venue, and high-fidelity manikin availability. Virtual reality (VR) as a learning strategy would be able to mitigate these challenges, be suitable for the current generation of learners and meet the current post- Covid climate and educational needs. VR learning, identified as engaging, can be designed to relate to the specific learning needs relevant to students and provide objective feedback to students with or without an instructor.

Objectives

1. To create an interactive platform that introduces basic knowledge and the processes that are involved when a patient enters the operating theatre (OT) prior to students beginning their actual OT experience.
2. To introduce the various components of the “operating theatre world”.
3. To ensure that students can identify and manage common medical crisis that occur in OT/OR and other parts of the hospital.
4. To evaluate students’ perception about the OT-VR experience by quantitative and qualitative research.

Phases Of Work

Estimated Budget

Project Timeline