JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The interprofessional educational curriculum for Patient and Personnel Safety (2P Safety) is of critical importance, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, to prepare junior multi-professional teams for emergency settings.

Objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of an innovative interprofessional educational curriculum that integrates medical movies, massive open online courses (MOOCs), and Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training using 3D computer-based or virtual-reality simulations along with team co-debriefing. These methods were compared with traditional approaches involving undergraduate clinical students from multiple disciplines.

Methods:

This mixed-method, prospective, double-blinded experimental study was conducted at a university hospital from July 2022 to September 2023 and involved 87 clinical undergraduate students from various disciplines, including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, radiological, and medical technology. The students were divided into 3 groups: 1) a control group, which received only 3D computer-based virtual-simulation-based interprofessional education (SimBIE) without debriefing; 2) a group engaging with a comprehensive program, including a medical movie, MOOCs, and 3D computer-based virtual SimBIE and co-debriefing; and 3) a group receiving the same interventions with a 3D virtual-reality SimBIE. The validated modified TeamSTEPPS Team Performance Observation Tool was used to measure team performance. A 60- to 90-minute focus group discussion with semi-structured interview questions, based on the New World Kirkpatrick model and aligned with the TeamSTEPPS framework, was conducted with subsequent thematic analysis.

Results:

Eighty-seven participants were enrolled in this study. TeamSTEPPS performance was significantly better (P < .001) in groups that received comprehensive training with medical videos, MOOCs, and virtual simulations with co-debriefing than in the control group. Additionally, the analysis of focus group discussions based on Kirkpatrick’s model levels 1 to 3 indicated positive effects on satisfaction, engagement, knowledge, skills, attitude, and confidence, enriched by game practice and debriefing sessions.

Conclusions:

Integrating TeamSTEPPS with medical movies, MOOCs, virtual simulation training, and co-debriefing effectively improved interprofessional collaboration and team performance in emergency medicine. We recommend adopting these novel instructional designs as standard preparation of undergraduate healthcare professionals for better clinical practice to improve 2P Safety and patient outcomes. Clinical Trial: ์None