Can motor skills be learned by playing a video game?

Abstract

Personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gloves, gowns and masks, are intended to minimize risk of exposure to infections and are sometimes misused due to improper acquisition of skills or decay of skills between acquisition and clinical practice. Training and assessment of these skills often follow didactic models or online instruction. Our purpose was to develop an interactive computer simulation or video game that will enable procedural practice of PPE skills. The salient features of the skill were determined using the Delphi method. Electronic surveys were iteratively distributed to experts asking them to rate the importance of checklist and global rating items for evaluating performance of PPE skills. The Delphi survey highlighted the importance of including hand hygiene, risk assessment and PPE sequencing into the simulation. In addition the survey informed the design of the video game that considered principles of skill learning and performance in its design. The simulation allowed users to practice using PPE in isolation as well as selecting and using PPE for specific clinical scenarios and enabled procedural practice of PPE skills in the absence of scheduling difficulty and space for physical practice. Comparison of donning and doffing PPE both before and after training on the video game showed benefit to this type of video game simulation training.

Acknowledgments: This work was supported by funding to HC from NSERC and the BMO Financial Chair in Health Professions Education Research