A New Immersive Virtual Reality Station for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Objective Structured Clinical Exam Evaluation.

The Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) is an assessment tool used as a reliable method for clinical competence evaluation of students. This paper presents an investigation focused on the chain of survival, its related exploration, management, and technical skills, and how Virtual Reality (VR) can be used for the creation of immersive environments capable of evaluating students' performance while applying the correct protocols. In particular, the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) procedure is studied as an essential step in the development of the chain of survival. The paper also aims to highlight the limitations of traditional methods using mechanical mannequins and the benefits of the new approaches that involve the students in virtual, immersive, and dynamic environments. Furthermore, an immersive VR station is presented as a new technique for assessing CPR performance through objective data collection and posterior evaluation. A usability test was carried out with 33 clinicians and OSCE evaluators to test the viability of the presented scenario, reproducing conditions of a real examination. Results suggest that the environment is intuitive, quick, and easy to learn and could be used in clinical practice to improve CPR performance and OSCE evaluation.

Design and Development of a Hemorrhagic Trauma Simulator for Lower Limbs: A Pilot Study.

One of the main preventable leading causes of death after a trauma injury is the hemorrhagic shock. Therefore, it is extremely important to learn how to control hemorrhages. In this paper, a hemorrhagic trauma simulator for lower limb has been developed and a pilot study has been accomplished to trail the simulator. Four different bleeding scenarios have been tested per participant, gathering information about the manual pressure exerted to control the bleeding. Data, altogether, from 54 hemorrhagic scenarios managed by final year medical students and doctors were gathered. Additionally, a post-simulation questionnaire, related to the usability of the simulator, was completed. All the participants managed to control the simulated bleeding scenarios, but the pressure exerted to control the four different scenarios is different depending if the trainee is a student or a doctor, especially in deep venous hemorrhages. This research has highlighted the different approach to bleeding control treatment between medical students and doctors. Moreover, this pilot study demonstrated the need to deliver a more effective trauma treatment teaching for hemorrhagic lesions and that hemorrhagic trauma simulators can be used to train and evaluate different scenarios.