Enhancing your reality – east of England developing VR training

Enhance (formerly Generalism) in the east of England is pioneering the use of 360⁰  immersive virtual reality (VR) as part of its education offer. 

The team have recently been recording a four-part series for their first VR training module with a focus on complex multi-morbidity. This follows the journey of “Peter” an elderly gentleman with multiple complex health and care needs from his home, into A&E, staying on the ward whilst receiving treatment, and then an outpatient follow-up once he is fully recovered. 

The module will give doctors the unique opportunity to follow a patient journey across systems, including experiencing the uncertainty of treatment from the perspective of the confused patient, and a stretched postgraduate doctor in their second year of training.  It will demonstrate the benefit of working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary colleagues and highlight the valuable work of non-NHS organisations. 

Three out of the four settings have now been filmed with the final one to follow shortly.  The project has been successful thanks to many collaborators generating the ideas and supporting the overall writing of storyboards.  In addition, it could not have been completed without our postgraduate doctors in training across the east of England giving up their valuable free time to support by acting in various roles, not just those they are currently training for. 

The editing and production phase is now underway.  The module will initially be shared with the foundation doctors in the Generalism/Enhance pilot scheme starting in August, for feedback and evaluation. All being well, it will be made available to all doctors in training in due course.

Interactive immersive video is a powerful new tool in medical education. It has been shown to provide deep and memorable educational experiences which are well received by our learners. Our local expertise in the east of England means that we are ideally placed to produce these new resources – the team are very proud of the work we have done so far and look forward to sharing the finished product with thousands of doctors in training across the country in the coming few months

Dr. Daniel James, Programme Director, School of Generalism

To find out more about the VR module, or if you want to get involved in the filming of future VR modules contact the EoE Enhance team: generalism.eoe@hee.nhs.uk

HEE launched the Enhancing Generalist Skills programme to help develop generalist skills, supporting 'whole person' care, and to help reduce health inequalities and address local health priorities.