JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Neonatal resuscitation involves a complex sequence of actions to establish an infant’s cardio-respiratory function at birth. Many of these responses, which identify the best action sequence in each situation, are taught as part of the recurrent Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) training, but they have a low incidence in practice, which leaves HCPs less prepared to respond appropriately and efficiently when they do occur. Computer-based simulators are increasingly used to complement traditional training in medical education, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic era of mass transition to digital education. However, it is not known how learners’ attitudes toward computer-based learning and assessment environments influence their performance in these environments.

Objective:

This study explores the relation between healthcare providers’ (HCP) attitudes towards a computer-based simulator and their performance in the computer-based simulator, RETAIN, to uncover the predictors of performance in computer-based simulation environments for neonatal resuscitation.

Methods:

Participants were 50 neonatal HCPs (45 females, 4 males, 1 not reported; 16 respiratory therapists, 33 registered nurses and nurse practitioners, and 1 physician) affiliated with a large university hospital. Participants completed a demographic pre-survey before playing the game and an attitudinal post-survey after completing the RETAIN game. Participants’ survey responses were collected to measure attitudes towards the computer-based simulator, among other factors. Knowledge on neonatal resuscitation was assessed on each round of the game through increasingly difficult neonatal resuscitation scenarios. The study investigated the moderating role of mindset on the association between the perceived benefits of understanding the terminology used in the computer-based simulator, RETAIN, and their performance on the neonatal resuscitation tasks covered by RETAIN.

Results:

The results revealed that mindset moderated the relation between participants’ perceived terminology used in RETAIN and their actual performance in the game. Specifically, participants who perceived the terminology useful also performed better but only when endorsing more of a growth mindset; they also performed worse when endorsing more of a fixed mindset. Most participants reported that they enjoyed playing the game. The results revealed that the more the HCPs thought that they retained knowledge from the tutorial, the better they performed in the game, but only when they reported enjoying the game more than the average over the participants.

Conclusions:

Mindset moderates the strength of the relationship between HCPs’ perception of the role that the terminology employed in a game simulator has on their performance and their actual performance in a computer-based simulator designed for neonatal resuscitation training. Implications of this research include the design and development of interactive learning environments that can support healthcare providers in performing better on neonatal resuscitation tasks. Clinical Trial: The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Board at the University of Alberta (Pro00064234).