Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Training in Teaching Personal Protective Equipment Skills: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance: Training on the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical for infection prevention among health care workers. Traditional methods, such as face-to-face and video-based training, can strain resources and present challenges.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of 360° virtual reality (VR) training for PPE donning and doffing compared with face-to-face and video training in enhancing the PPE use skills of prospective health care practitioners.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A blinded, prospective, and randomized noninferiority clinical trial was conducted from August to December 2021 at Teikyo University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, with a mixed population of medical students. Participants were second- to fourth-year medicine, medical technology, or pharmacy students aged 20 years or older with no prior PPE training. Participants were randomized into 1 of 3 training groups (VR, face-to-face, or video) based on their enrollment order. An intention-to-treat analysis was conducted.

Intervention: A 30-minute lecture on PPE procedures was delivered to all participants before the training. After the lecture, the VR group trained with an immersive 360° VR tool, the face-to-face group trained with actual PPE, and the video group trained by watching video footage on a computer and a projector. After 3 days, a standardized practical skills test was administered.

Main Outcomes And Measures: The primary outcome was the mean score on a 20-point practical skills test, and the secondary outcome was the percentage of correct execution.

Results: A total of 91 participants were recruited and randomized into 3 groups: VR (n = 30), face-to-face (n = 30), and video (n = 31) training. After excluding 1 participant due to illness, 90 participants (mean [SD] age, 24.2 [3.15] years; 54 males [60.0%]) completed the assessment. The mean (SD) scores were 17.70 (2.10) points for the VR group, 17.57 (2.45) points for the face-to-face group, and 15.87 (2.90) points for the video group. The VR group demonstrated no significant difference in performance from the face-to-face group. However, the VR group had significantly higher effectiveness than the video group (17.70 vs 15.87 points; P = .02).

Conclusions And Relevance: Results of this trial indicate that VR training was as effective as face-to-face training in enhancing PPE donning and doffing skills and was superior to video training. The findings suggest that VR training is a viable resource-conserving training option.

Trial Registration: Japan Registry of Clinical Trials Identifier: jRCT103021029.