DELIVERING PAEDIATRIC EMERGENCY AND HUMAN
FACTORS TRAINING IN THE FORM OF VIRTUAL SIMULATION
ab
JAVAID AA , CROMARTY T , PAK TY , JONES NL ,HEMROM S , ORUGANTI S
Background
Cardiff University Medical Students all take part in paediatric emergen-
cies simulation days in Year 4. Due to the COVID19 pandemic virtual
simulation sessions were developed. Semi-scripted simulations were
pre-recorded with faculty and were designed to touch upon key clinical
learning points. Virtual simulation also allowed for human factor teach-
ing to be incorporated in the videos, which hadn’t been possible during
traditional simulation days.
Aims
The primary aim of the project was to allow paediatric emergency sim-
ulation teaching to continue while abiding by social distancing rules.
The secondary aim was to use feedback from students to determine
the advantages and disadvantages of virtual simulation training, then
to identify elements that could be incorporated into future training
days once face-to-face teaching resumed.
Results
200 students out of 305 completed feedback forms. Results from Lik-
ert questions were as follows:
Statement Mean Score
The learning outcomes were met 4.4
The session was enjoyable 4.1
The session was useful 4.2
The session has prepared me to apply my
4.2
knowledge in the clinical setting
The session has prepared me to apply my
3.9
skill in the clinical setting
The session has increased my competence
4.0
for clinical practice
The session has increased my confidence for
4.0
clinical practice
I found the feedback I was given useful 4.2
A brief video summary of our project and some
of the key findings from the qualitative analysis
can be found on the ASPiH website. Alternative-
ly, it can be viewed on YouTube by scanning this
QR code.
c d d b be
a b c
School of Paediatrics, HEIW; Centre for Medical Education, Cardiff University; Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth;
d e
School of Medicine, Cardiff University; Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, Cardiff
Method
Students from the 2020-21 Year 4 cohort were encouraged at the end
of the sessions to fill in an online feedback form. Data were collected
following three sessions delivered between November 2020 and April
2021.
The feedback form used mixed methods to gather data about their im-
pressions of the virtual simulation day. Eight questions used a 5-point
Likert Rating Scale to determine how useful students found the day—
students were asked to score how much they agreed with several
statements on a scale of 0 to 5 (where 0 = not at all, 5 = very much so).
In addition, 5 open text questions at the end of the survey allowed for
qualitative data to be gathered, which underwent thematic analysis to
determine key learning points from running virtual simulations and
their future use.
Conclusion
Virtual simulations were a well received replacement for face-to-face
simulations and allowed paediatric emergency teaching to continue
despite the safety measures needed in light of the COVID19 pandem-
ic. However, students felt that the loss of practical hands-on experi-
ence was significant.
In light of this, teaching is moving back to face-to-face simulations.
However, this is with two notable additions inspired by the feedback
from the virtual simulation service evaluation:
1. The development of a pre-simulation day learning video—this will
cover much of the basic knowledge needed for paediatric emer-
gencies, freeing the students to focus more on their performance
in the simulation on the day
2.The virtual simulation will be run alongside the face-to-face simula-
tions. The pandemic has not ended and absenteeism is still a prob-
lem. So, for students who cannot attend the face-to-face session,
they will be given the option to attend the virtual simulation if they
are well enough.