ViTAWiN - Interprofessional Medical Mixed Reality Training for Paramedics and Emergency Nurses

Abstract

Medical training can benefit from immersive technology such as multiuser virtual reality (VR) or mixed reality (MR). In this paper, we explore how such technology can be applied to interprofessional training settings, where students of two different professional groups, paramedics and emergency nurses, can train together on a shared case involving a burnt patient scenario. In order to support integration in existing real training environments, we further integrate a haptic simulation mannequin using a mixed reality approach. This paper presents a user study with 30 paramedic students and 14 nursing trainees. As a first, our evaluation involves the two user groups joining a mixed reality interprofessional medical training remotely from their respective training academies. While the results indicate good usability and presence effects at low simulator sickness, highlighting the potential of conjointly training multiple medical groups, we discuss the practical complexity of the setup and a potential currently limited in emotion fidelity, hardware comfort and stability of remote communication.