Virtual reality may help train scrub nurses for revision TKA
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Training with fully immersive virtual reality improved scrub nurses’ understanding, technical skills and efficiency during complex revision total knee arthroplasty, according to presented results.
Thomas C. Edwards, an orthopedic surgeon from the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London, said at the International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty New Early Career Webinar Series, “The equipment we use is highly complex, and [scrub nurses] can find it difficult to learn in the stressful environment of the OR.”
Edwards and colleagues recruited 10 orthopedic scrub nurses to be trained for complex revision TKA in four virtual reality [VR] sessions during the span of a month. The VR sessions included one guided and three unguided simulations.
Outcome measures included procedural sequence accuracy, duration of surgery and efficiency of movement, according to the study.
“VR training did improve scrub nurses’ confidence, anxiety, technical skills and efficiency, and crucially, these skills translated to the physical world,” Edwards said.
He noted that all participants improved throughout the course of the training with increases in confidence and reduced anxiety reported. Operating time reduced by 47%, assistive prompts reduced by 75%, dominant hand motion reduced by 28% and head motion reduced by 36% among the cohort. In addition, participant nurses correctly completed 83.5% of the equipment assembly after training compared with 11.3% before training.
“In the future, we’re looking at multi-layer training with both surgeons and scrub nurses together,” Edwards concluded.
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Edwards TC, et al. Training the perfect scrub nurse: An immersive virtual reality curriculum for learning revision total knee arthroplasty. Presented at: International Society for Technology in Arthroplasty New Early Career Webinar Series; Nov. 20-21, 2020.
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