Assessing the efficacy of tablet-based simulations for learning pseudo-surgical instrumentation

IntroductionNurses and surgeons must identify and handle specialized instruments with high temporal and spatial precision. It is crucial that they are trained effectively. Traditional methods, including supervised practices and text-based study, can expose patients to undo risk or neglect motor/haptic training respectively. Tablet-based simulations have been proposed to mediate some of these limitations.MethodsWe implement a learning task that simulates surgical instrumentation nomenclature encountered by novice perioperative nurses. Learning was assessed following training in three distinct conditions: tablet-based simulations, text-based study, and real-world practice.ResultsImmediately following a 30 minute training period, instrument identification was performed with comparable accuracy and response times following tablet-based versus text-based training, with both inferior to real-world practice. Following a week without practice, response times were equivalent between real-world and tablet-based practice.ConclusionsWhile tablet-based training does not achieve equivalent results in instrument identification accuracy as real-world practice, more practice repetitions in simulated environments may help reduce performance decline from delayed implementation of learning. This project has established a technological framework to assess how we can implement simulated educational environments in a maximally beneficial manner.