Assessment of a Video based Virtual Reality Environment for Triage Instruction

Background: This study wants to evaluate Virtual Reality (VR) technology as a tool to simulate and instruct basic triage. In mass casualty events evaluation of patients is an impactful skill to optimize patients’ survival. Prehospital triage is needed rarely, but is important. Acquiring routine needs lots of human, financial and device resources. VR learning tools could take an effective and cost-efficient part in educating triage. Methods: Triage was performed by physicians with residency in prehospital emergency medicine in a 360° virtual reality setting. In a multistep concept, questionnaires about their VR experiences and demography are filled out before a familiarization was done. Afterwards, they performed a VR triage on simulated 50 patients during a mass casualty event. Evaluation was done via questionnaires on “cyber sickness, “system utility” and accessibility and “presence”Inductive statistics were done with SPSS 31 using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results: Even though 50% of the participants had no experience in VR prior to the simulation, utility was rated with a high score (mean = 78.875). No significant amount of cyber sickness occurred; all measured symptoms were rated low by the participants (mean = 2.142). General presence was rated with a moderate number (GP = 0.75). No simulation was shortened, paused or stopped. Conclusion: Education centers might profit from with 360° VR systems due to its scoring, fast world building and comparably low costs. Disciplines like disaster medicine can profit from VR education.