Background:
Severe sepsis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide (Hajj, Blaine, Salavaci, & Jacoby, 2018). A systematic review reported a lack of education as a barrier to improvement in patient outcomes (Damiani et al., 2015), which may be due to limited exposure to sepsis in the ‘real’ clinical environment. Simulation education has attempted to address this (Brydges, Hatala, Zendejas, Erwin, & Cook, 2015), yet is resource and time intensive, and may not allow the learner to repeatedly practice the scenario.
Virtual reality (VR), a multi-media technology, immerses the learner into a virtual 360 world and simultaneously allows them to repeatedly manipulate objects, perform tasks and make decisions. As such, it may augment more traditional approaches to clinical simulation. A team at Â鶹ÉçÇø collaborated with VR experts (Artecise ® and the Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies (SCET)) to create, as far as the authors are aware, the first ever VR sepsis game for pre and post qualifying nurses. The simulation was launched in April 2019 and this presentation will outline the design, development and conversion to a desktop simulation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Project:
The design phase of the project involved development of a decision algorithm and script, followed by animation and game construction. Using AGILE methodology and input from clinicians and academics the game evolved into a clinically authentic and the design and development phase was completed in early 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic the game was converted to a desktop computer based simulation and is currently being translated to Spanish and Portuguese. Demonstration of the VR game will be available at the conference in addition to the presentation.