The Feasibility of Virtual Reality and Student-Led Simulation Training as Methods of Lumbar Puncture Instruction

Abstract

Background: There is limited data assessing simulation and virtual reality training as a standardized tool in medical education. This feasibility study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality training and a student-led simulation module in preparing medical students to perform a lumbar puncture.

Methods: Twenty-five medical students completed a pre-intervention survey, and a baseline video recorded lumbar puncture procedure on a task trainer. Students were randomly distributed into the virtual reality group, or the curriculum's standard student-led procedural instruction group. Participants were then given 45 min to practice the lumbar puncture procedure. After the intervention, all participants were video recorded again as they performed a post-intervention lumbar puncture and completed a post-intervention survey. Pre- and post-intervention videos were scored using a critical action checklist in conjunction with time needed to complete the procedure to evaluate proficiency.

Results: At baseline, there were no major statistically significant differences between groups. Assessing overall post-intervention performance, both groups showed improvement in aggregate score (p < 0.001) and time required to complete (p = 0.002) the lumbar puncture. Following interventions, the student-led group improved over the virtual reality group in a variety of metrics. The student-led group increased their aggregate score by 3.49 and decreased their time to completion by 34 s over the VR group when controlling for baseline measures.

Conclusions: Both virtual reality and student-led simulation training were useful training modalities, with hands-on simulation showing better results versus virtual reality training in this setting.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-020-01141-6.

Keywords: Clinical skills; Medical education; Procedural training; Simulation; Student-led; Virtual reality.