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Abstract
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Background and Aims Since the Lancet Commission 2015, research and education have been high on the agenda for international collaboration. Global Anaesthesia Surgery Obstetric Collaboration (GASOC) and Virtual Reality in Medicine and Surgery (VRiMS) collaborated with Kabale University, Uganda to deliver a two-day anaesthetic workshop on advanced airway and USRA. Specific skills were identified from a learning needs assessment and expert African faculty was sought to ensure context-specific teaching.
Methods Anaesthetic officers from the Kigezi region, which serves a population of 1.2 million, attended the teaching session. Plan A blocks, video laryngoscopy and front-of-neck access were demonstrated, recorded, and live-streamed using 360 VR technology (figure 1). Feedback comprising qualitative and quantitative data was collected.
Results The capture rate of feedback was 91.4% (43 out of 47 attendees) with a positive rating in most skills sessions (figure 2). Learners reported an increase in knowledge (‘better understanding of ultrasound’), acquisition of new skills (‘know how to block’) and behavioural change (‘feel I can offer pain-free anaesthesia’) (figure 3).
Conclusions At the time of writing, this is the first course engaging an all-African faculty in conducting training and educational research in VR and USRA. We are proud to have achieved a gender-equal faculty. Moving forward, we aim to allocate more time and equipment to improve faculty:learner ratio. We also hope to collaborate with Butterfly iQ and the African Society of Regional Anaesthesia (AFSRA) to provide further teaching in 3- and 6-months. This aims to sustain behavioural changes that will ultimately improve patient safety outcomes.
Virtual reality-enhanced teaching session
Learners’ rating of individual sessions
World Cloud gathered from the ‘Three Take Home Messages’