I conducted two types of studies. Firstly I gathered data through the use of a questionnaire which went out to 22 people who use first aid regularly. From teaching it, using it as their job as well as people who think it is important to have first aid training.
The data below shows a series of questions and the answer that people gave to them. Using these I will be able to develop a full understanding of the direction that I should go as well as understand current issues with first aid training and use this to answer some assumptions and anecdotal evidence I have from my own experiences. Using the Quantitative data with the Qualitative data I gathered in a 1 on 1 interview will provide a clear insight for my project.
This is a simple metric which will contextualise the validity of the reset of the answer. Having a first aid qualification means that the user has first hand experience in the topic I aim to cover and using this metric will allow me to understand the comparison between someone who has a first aid qualification and someone who does not.
This metric is interesting as 100% of the people who have a first aid qualification have used it. This shows that someone who is trained has the knowledge to respond correctly to any situations that arise.
Using this in conjunction with the metric below shows that having appropriate training prepared the person effectively to perform the tasks that they needed to do.
This is interesting as it directly relates to the opinion of people who are first aid trained. The majority agree that people should have some form of first aid training with a tail off for people who think it may not be relevant. I can see both sides of this argument as it is important that people are aware of the basic skills but for more complex situations a first aider should be near by or close at hand. This opinion is reflected in the Government restrictions on first aiders a work and the ratios that need to be maintained depending on the type of environment that they are working in. more information can be found here.
The questions below as specifics about first aid courses that the participants have attended. This is useful as it provides me with information on the areas of first aid training that have been neglected and understand where VR maybe able to fit into the training.
The question directly below shows the participants opinion on how they felt the practical skills were on their course. Looking into this it is clear that many were satisfied but several were not. It is there for a point to wonder if this could be improved and if maybe VR could be the tool to do so?
This is an interesting answer most people were indifferent or slightly agreed with the question. It makes me wonder if VR could provide more time to spend on this if it improved to workflow and teaching of the practical elements of first aid training.
This question was used to understand an assumption that I made off of an anecdote on a first aid course I attended. I found that several people who attended the first aid course I was on did not take the role play element of first aid training seriously. As this is were I think VR could improve first aid training the most I thought it would be important to find some research which backed up this point or proved me wrong. It is clear from this that many people shared the same sentiment with me. This makes it clear that I need to look at how VR can improve the quality of immersion of the first aid training as doing this may take a way from people not taking the training seriously.
This last question was an optional question that I wanted answered on the use of VR in first aid training. The response to this question was interesting as several people thought it was not a useful thing in first aid training. But several people thought it would be good at 33.3% of the total answers. But an over welling 50% of the answers, answered with Maybe. I opened this question to some longer form answers which have expanded my understanding of why people agree or disagree with the original question. Some of the answers provide some insights into the direction I should take my project.
After I looked at this data from 22 people I decided it would be important to look at interview someone who could provide a more in depth experience of these questions especially surrounding VR as well as their experiences with scenario based learning.
A background on the person I interviewed. The person that I interviewed has experience with SBL through their professional career which exposes them to teaching as an instructor as well as a student. I think that a person like this is perfectly situated to comment on how first aid could be improved and how SBL could be applied in first aid training in VR.
I asked them a set of 16 questions which I have included here:
What is you Profession?
Senior ranked NCO in the British Army
What is your background in teaching and coaching?
Senior ranked NCO in the British Army with the training that is associated with it. Such as Juniors & Seniors as well as the Army's DTTT(Defence Train the Trainer) training.
Have you used SBL?
The Army uses SBL extensively in the form of exercises and battle lessons. Where theory and initial training is put into practice.
What is your experience with learning about first aid and pre-hospital care?
EMT course in South Africa working in Hospitals, Ambulances and Trauma Centres.
Do you think people take first aid training seriously?
Yes. most often people take it seriously especially if they have volunteered to attend the training. It is also important the an instructor makes sure that they are engaging with the students on the course otherwise they may loose interest and not take it seriously. The training needs to be transactional. There needs to be a give and take between the student and the teacher. Consequences for not participating.
Do you think people who have to retake a first aid qualification take it seriously?
Yes, most do. But with this some people may also treat it with flippancy as they have already done it. This is also down to the instructor to make sure the training is engaging enough to insure that they learn something new too. There always needs to be a high level of instructor engagement.
Do you think role play is effective in developing fundamental skills?
Role play has a place along side other types of training. It is important to insure correct balance between every type of training as a varied approach is the best way to teach new skills
Do you think there is scope for higher cost medical training and scenarios to be bought into the army?
Yes everyone should have access to high level and high quality medical training. but the Royal Army Medical Core own it so there are some issues surrounding that.
Oxford University has already started to develop a tool in VR which allows doctors to practice patient interactions in hospital care. Do you think something like this could be used in pre-hospital care and first aid to improve skills?
Yes, a system like this would be great. If it was able to emulate systems and interactions that a first aider would need to do in real life such as feeling a pulse or checking the heart rate of a casualty.
How important is the Fidelity of the VR experience?
The fidelity is important it needs to be clear enough that a user can identify the differences between certain signs & symptoms. But there is space to stylise the interactions so that they do not need to be photo realistic. The interactions could be on par with the game operation flashpoint. It is more important that the accuracy of the interactions is maintained. Future accuracy in fidelity would be useful and if resources allowed for the development of highly accurate models then that should be done.
How would you verify the accuracy of the interactions?
The interactions would need to be verified by someone who is experienced with first aid and they would need to be used as a benchmark.
What advantages can you see with using VR from the explanation I have given you?
Learning to identify signs & symptoms on a patient in real-time would be really beneficial. Being able to change how the patient looks acts and sounds would provide a more varied training scenario than using a doll as signs and symptoms manifest themselves different in different types of people.
What disadvantages can you see with using VR from the explanation I have given you?
VR will need to be accompanied by more traditional training methods. It is not a be all and end all solution. It should only be used as part of the practical training and assessment of students and not as a replacement for teaching the fundamental skills in a more traditional way. Limitation with training include an instructor being able to monitor people safely while they are in a VR environment as well as the instructor be able to monitor the students progress. This would need to be in a low ratio such as how the army performs weapons handling tests. Also the use of VR should not take up so much time learning to use it that it takes away from valuable time that more traditional methods could do.
These are the 6 reasons that most people agree that SBL is good at doing. Do you think this is correct?
Yes these are correct and allow the student to experience all of these which is highly important in improving the skills of someone. But they are only as good as the scenario produced by the instructor and the quality of the instruction that they give. The last point "It Probably won't be as you expect for real" This is part true part false depending on the type of scenario it is and the level of role play sometimes they can be as realistic and provide like for like training, but they can also be out of date. This show that it is important for a instructor to be up to date on their field and not just stuck in a teaching environment.
Do you think that technology could improve current SBL teaching methods?
Yes, if the system of technology was appropriate, easily deployable and it would provide an valid use. Examples such as cost saving, time saving and improvement of current training would need to be ensured to make this the cause though.
Conclusion
In conclusion if this research I have found many questions and directions that I should be taking my research such as:
ensuring the VR solution provides a solid grounding in first aid.
It must be used in conjunction with out more standard first aid training methods. It is not a replacement but an addition.
I need to find a way to justify some of the points made in the long form answers such as:
Too expensive, had to use, etc...
First aid is about muscle memory which can't be learned in VR
Also I have managed to answer some of the important questions that I have needed to answer in my research. The first and most important question that I have managed to answer is the Question, Why VR? why even bother with using VR if training doesn't need to change and what should VR actually do.
Well as a brief answer to this question which I plan to answer more fully in a future post I have come to this conclusion.
Based upon my research VR has a place in first aid training as it allows the student to be fully immersed into a training scenario where they can have their skills tested. But the skills that this environment will test are limited to procedural skills such as the order in which to perform certain task when helping a casualty. VR also has the ability for data tracking of the interactions that a student performs allowing for improved feedback from an instructor improve the quality of education that a student is receiving. Together these answer Why VR? well as long as the interactions that happen within the application are representative enough of real world interactions as not to introduce limitations into the training which could take a way from the primary goal of actually teaching a student new skills.
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