6847 Medical students’ perception of the use of virtual reality to learn intramuscular injection skill: a pilot in a district general hospital

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate medical students' perceptions of the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) training application for learning the skill of intramuscular (IM) injection Methods From July to September 2023, undergraduate medical students were invited to join trial sessions for the VR training on IM injection. Each of the sessions began with a review of traditional IM injection teaching using a foam square to simulate the skin. Following that, each student was given a VR headset to complete a 3-minute-long training session on IM injection. Thereafter, students were asked to complete an anonymised questionnaire to provide their feedback collected and analysed using Excel. We used Likert scale of 0–10. Results Twelve students volunteered to participate in the study and completed the questionnaire. Seven of them (58%) were final-year medical students and had learned the skill before this trial or had previously administered an IM injection to a patient. Five students (42%) had used a virtual reality before. On average, it took students 3.75 minutes to complete the training, with the completion time ranging from 3 to 6 minutes. All 8 out of 8 students would recommend VR to other students. The median score of how helpful it was for training in retaining information was 8. A score of 7 to10 out of10 was given by most (83%) indicating that VR made them feel more confident in their knowledge about IM injection. A score of 0–2 out of 10 was indicated by most (92%) with regards to how difficult they found learning how to use the VR equipment for the training. Students felt confident to apply the knowledge after the experience with a median score of 9. Most students (70%) found that using VR was more convenient than standard training approaches. The students also recommended using VR training for virtual ward rounds, teaching history-taking and communication skills, and learning procedures such as cannulations, nasogastric tube insertion, or management of emergencies using the ABCDE assessment. Conclusion Virtual reality provides an expanding range of tools that can improve the quality of medical education, particularly for clinical skills development. Medical students had a positive attitude to the VR training. They could see the potential of using VR for more interactive training in other areas.