Satisfaction Levels of Remote Healthcare Simulation amongst EMS Professionals in Pune, India

Aim: Healthcare education comprises of various components including theory, practicals, clinical and cognitive skills. The teaching andragogy has evolved from classroom sessions and laboratory experiments to clinical rotation duties. Simulation has played a significant role as a new revolutionary tool in andragogy as it involves self-reflective and immersive learning. The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing rules necessitated the suspension of all in-person learning activities at workplaces, public places and all educational institutes. Consequently, distance learning became essential. As a result, the classroom sessions were replaced by online mode sessions and the teaching faculties had no option but to adapt to the new technology in a short period of time. It is crucial to gauge the satisfaction levels amongst Emergency Medical Professionals (EMP’s) attending remote simulation sessions to devise more user friendly programs for the future. The aim of the study is to assess the satisfaction level of the Emergency Medical Professionals exposed to remote simulation

Study Design: Quantitative Study.

Place and Duration of Study: Symbiosis Centre for Health Skills, Pune in October 2021.

Materials and Methods: A quantitative study on satisfaction level was conducted in October 2021, amongst 200 Emergency Medical Professionals (EMP’s) in the city of Pune, India. Simulated Clinical Experiences (SCE’s) on various cardiac emergencies were designed by Simulation Educators. The participants attended the session via virtual platform Microsoft Teams for a period of 2 hours. A 19-item student satisfaction survey, was used to determine the participant’s satisfaction with the remote simulation session.

Results and Discussion: The study was conducted with the aim to adjudge the level of satisfaction amongst EMS professionals with the remote simulation mode of teaching. In the post Covid era, remote learning has become a norm and cannot be ignored. The session successfully recreated a real patient care setting and the participants enjoyed the immersive learning experience. Although limited number of participants could actively engage in the patient care during the session, the debriefing ensured that all participants were involved in the session.

Conclusion: The unanimity in the satisfaction scores is very encouraging for facilitators to devise interesting SCE’s and teach in the remote simulation mode. This shall ensure that the continued medical education does not suffer as a result of the pandemic.