The art of picking up signs that a child may be suffering from abuse at home is one of those skills that cannot easily be taught, given its dependence on a range of non-cognitive abilities. It is also difficult to study, given the number of factors that may interfere with this skill in a real-life, professional setting. An immersive virtual reality environment provides a way round these difficulties. In this study, we recruited 64 general practitioners (GPs), with different levels of experience. Would this level of experience have any impact on general practitioners' ability to pick up child-safeguarding concerns? Would more experienced GPs find it easier to pick up subtle (rather than obvious) signs of child-safeguarding concerns? Our main measurement was the quality of the note left by the GP at the end of the virtual consultation: we had a panel of 10 (all experienced in safeguarding) rate the note according to the extent to which they were able to identify and take the necessary steps required in relation to the child safeguarding concerns. While the level of professional experience was not shown to make any difference to a GP's ability to pick up those concerns, the parent's level of aggressive behavior toward the child did. We also manipulated the level of cognitive load (reflected in a complex presentation of the patient's medical condition): while cognitive load did have some impact upon GPs in the "obvious cue" condition (parent behaving particularly aggressively), this effect fell short of significance. Furthermore, our results also suggest that GPs who are less stressed, less neurotic, more agreeable and extroverted tend to be better at raising potential child abuse issues in their notes. These results not only point at the considerable potential of virtual reality as a training tool, they also highlight fruitful avenues for further research, as well as potential strategies to support GP's in their dealing with highly sensitive, emotionally charged situations.
Background: Virtual reality technology is a rapidly developing tool which has been shown to have exciting prospects in the field of medical education (1). In a recent, subsequent study, Pan et al. consider the potential of the same technology in the realm of child protection training and safeguarding issues (2). To build upon the Pan et al. (2) study, a panel discussion was held at The Centre for Behavior Change Annual Conference 2018 to discuss the question “Can a virtual reality communication scenario be used to teach General Practitioners and trainees how to recognize and manage child protection issues?.”Methodology: The above study comprised an immersive virtual reality consultation, in which the ability of 63 doctors to pick up covert safeguarding cues was tested in the context of a consultation with an adult patient, where the patient's child happened to be present as well. The study and its findings were discussed at the Centre for Behavior Change 4th Annual Conference, and this paper summarizes the opinions of both the panel and the audience.Viewpoint: Safeguarding is a challenging area of practice where we must listen to the child, and tackle difficult conversations with parents. Within medical training, role play is the gold standard for teaching how to communicate in difficult scenarios. Given the ethical questions surrounding children being asked to role play such abuse, the use of virtual reality characters could have a key role in upgrading current practices in medical education on safeguarding.
BackgroundIn 2013, Child Health Reviews-UK recommended the introduction of epilepsy passports to improve communication and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with epilepsy. Since their introduction by the RCPCH in September 2015, epilepsy passports have yet to be evaluated.Aims1) To assess the need for epilepsy passports2) to evaluate staff and parents’ views on the usage and usefulness of the passportsMethodsPatients with an existing diagnosis of epilepsy attending a busy district general hospital in 2016 were offered passports and inclusion in the study. Staff and parents’ experience was assessed between January to April 2016 using questionnaires. All parents whose children had been newly given an epilepsy passport during the study period were asked for their opinion.Results121 attendances for epileptic seizures in children under 16 were recorded in 2015 with 22 children attending more than once and 1 child visiting 8 times. Only half the attendances resulted in admission indicating a need for education on managing short epileptic seizures at home.13 A and E staff members completed the questionnaire. All found epilepsy passports useful, particularly in cases with a language barrier or previous adverse drug reaction.11 parents were recruited for the study whose child did not previously have an epilepsy passport. All wanted a passport and thought it would help communication between themselves and healthcare professionals. English was not the first language for one family who felt it would be useful to communicate drug dosages and information on their child’s other diagnoses. 9 parents completed the follow-up questionnaire, 3 of which used their passport during the study period. The 3 that used them found them useful to communicate with the paramedics and doctors attending to their child, the other 6 stated they felt more confident just having the passport.ConclusionThese findings have implications for practice, as all hospitals should be aware of the reassurance and help epilepsy passports can bring. A longer, more quantitative study should be carried out to assess whether the passports are actually reducing A and E attendances, or time spent in A and E, as well as increasing parents’ confidence in their children’s care.
BackgroundImmersive reality has been demonstrated to be an exciting educational tool in clinical consultations. Research groups internationally continue to explore new uses for this technology.Safeguarding is a challenging area of practice where we must listen to the child, and tackle difficult conversations with parents. As it is unethical to ask children to role play being abused, computer generated characters could have a key role in educating healthcare professionals on how to manage difficult scenarios.AimTo assess the interaction between doctors and a vulnerable child in a virtual reality safeguarding scenario.MethodsAll doctors at several local GP practices were offered inclusion in the study in early 2017. They were placed in an immersive virtual reality consultation where we tested their ability to pick up covert safeguarding cues within a consultation with an adult patient.After the consultation, they typed up their notes electronically as they would in their day-to-day practice. We have analysed their videoed consultations with the child and used a team of experts to rank their notes on how well they managed the safeguarding concern.ResultsWe recruited 63 participants in total; 37 GPs and 26 trainees, and 73% identified the safeguarding element of the consultation.Following the consultation only 14% of GPs identified asking the vulnerable child in the scenario about his relationship with his father. Negative responses ranged from comments such as ‘No, I thought the ‘agenda’ item was the letters’ to ‘I could/should have asked him directly if everything was ok at home’ to ‘I wasn’t sure that I should ask Tom questions without a parent present as he is only 6’.ConclusionThe fact that 73% of participants identified the safeguarding element shows that it was identifiable within the consultation and highlights the usefulness of immersive reality as a training tool.However, it also demonstrates a need for further training to increase the recognition rate. The range of interactions with the child demonstrates that some GPs are clearly skilled at interacting with children and others less confident. Their videoed virtual reality consultations would be a useful safeguarding training tool.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.