Effect of virtual reality training to decreases rates of needle stick/sharp injuries in new-coming medical and nursing interns in Taiwan

Purpose: Senior nursing and medical interns' lack of familiarity and confidence with respect to practicing universal precaution for the prevention of occupational needle stick (NSI)/sharp (SI) injuries may harm themselves. Trainees' self-reported NSI/SI rate was known to be especially high during the first two months of internship in Taiwan. This prospective cohort study aimed to know the effect of new developed (virtual reality (VR) game, which uses the Gangne's learning model to improved universal precaution for NSI/SI prevention and decrease the rates of needle stick/sharp injuries in new-coming medical and nursing interns in Taiwan. .

Methods: From 2017 to 2019, the VR system was developed and applied in training of 59 new-coming nursing and 50 medical interns. Occupational NSI/SI prevention was sought to be achieved through a game of right and wrong choices for safe or unsafe universal precaution behaviors.

Results: In comparison with medical interns, a higher proportion of nursing interns have had the past experiences of deep occupational NSI/SI. Before VR training, the familiarity and confidence for NSI/SI prevention were higher among nursing interns than medical interns. Trainees with past experiences of deep NSI/SI exhibited better performance on the accuracy rate and time need for complete 20 decisions than those without past experiences in VR practice. The performances of all trainees were improved after VR training. A high proportion of trainees reported that the VR-based training significantly decreased their anxiety about NSI/SI prevention.

Conclusion: This self-developed VR game system using Gangne's flow improved universal precaution for NSI/SI prevention and reduced the NSI/SI rates in the first two months of nursing and medical internship.