Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for high school students using an immersive 360‐degree virtual reality environment
Esther Z. Barsom, Ruben D. Duijm, L. W. P. Dusseljee‐Peute, E. B. Landman‐van der Boom, E. J. van Lieshout, Monique Jaspers, Marlies P. Schijven
Abstract
Abstract Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a lifesaving emergency procedure. To increase survival rates, it is recommended to increase the number of high school students who know how to perform CPR. We have developed an immersive “Virtual Reality (VR) Resuscitation Training” to train the theoretical knowledge of CPR in which trainees must save the life of the patient in a virtual environment. This paper presents a randomized controlled study with a pre‐posttest design to explore whether a VR enhanced curriculum improves high school students’ theoretical CPR knowledge. Forty students without previous CPR experience in the past year were randomly assigned to either the VR group or the standard group. The VR group had a significant higher increase of correct answers in comparison with the Standard group. More importantly, the gain in score on taking the correct sequence of CPR steps was significant favouring the VR‐enhanced protocol over the Standard protocol. Therefore, the use of a VR training for CPR training appears to be an effective learning method for non‐medical students and may be of great value skilling high school students in becoming adequate CPR providers. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic CPR education leads to an increase in CPR knowledge and increases trainees’ willingness to initiate CPR in a real‐life situation. Training CPR in a classroom setting has a lack of realism that bystanders experience during an actual life threatening situation. The experienced gap between the classroom and reality has a negative impact on self‐confidence which is known to be an important motive to actually initiate CPR. Smartphone‐based VR combined with immersive scenarios has the ability to engage trainees in a real‐life setting using immersive interactive scenarios. What this paper adds This randomized controlled trial demonstrates that a VR enhanced curriculum results in a higher increase of CPR knowledge in comparison to a standard curriculum featuring an e‐learning with 2D videos. This study shows that participants report higher self‐confidence in performing CPR. Implications for practice and/or policy VR training provides opportunities to keep CPR knowledge up to date to preserve self‐confidence in CPR‐providers. VR immersive environments improve the learning experience significantly.