The DREAM-VR Study: Does a Virtual Reality Tool Help Dental Students Master Acute Medical Emergencies Better?

The goal of this prospective educational cross‐over study is to compare the competencyand self‐reported confidence in managing acute medical emergencies in fourth year dentalstudents at the Academic Centre for Dentistry (ACTA) after training with a VirtualReality (VR) training tool. The main questions it aims to answer are: ‐ Do students who were trained with the VR tool perform better or equally good asstudents who were trained with a traditional training, in managing acute medicalemergencies? ‐ Do students who were trained with the VR tool score higher in self‐reportedconfidence scores? Researchers will compare the group who trained with the VR toolwith a group who received a traditional training with a mannikin to see if studentsfrom one of these methods performs better at a clinical exam in managing an acuteemergency that is played by a trained actor. They will also be compared withthemselves, since after 4 weeks the groups will be crossed‐over and will receive theother training with different clinical scenarios.Half of the participants will ‐ In week 1‐4: ‐ Play a VR scenario and watch peer students play other VR scenario's ‐ Fill out a written peer‐feedback form and discuss this with peers ‐ Fill out 3 short online questionnairs, before the training, just before theformative clinical exam and just after the formative clinical exam ‐ Participate in a formative clinical exam with a trained actor ‐ In week 5‐8: ‐ Play a scenario with a mannikin and watch peer students play other scenario's* ‐ Fill out a written peer‐feedback form and discuss this with peers ‐ Fill out 2 short online questionnairs, just before the summative clinical exam andjust after the summative clinical exam ‐ Participate in a summative clinical exam with a trained actor* The other half of theparticipants will participate in the same protocol, but in the reverse order. Theystart with the traditional training with a mannikin in week 1‐4 and cross‐over to VRin week 5‐8. ‐ The training program with a mannikin and the summative clinical exam is part of the regular curriculum.