Adopting Simulation Technology to Adopting Simulation Technology to Teach Veterinary Emergency Teach Veterinary Emergency

ResponseResponse

By Angela ClendeninBy Angela ClendeninALEC 640 – Theory of ChangeALEC 640 – Theory of ChangeOctober 20, 2015October 20, 2015

The InnovatorsCommunity Connections – Veterinary Emergency Response

Wesley Bissett, DVM, PhDDirectorTexas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team

Deb Zoran, DVM, PhD, DACVIM-SAIMMedical Operations OfficerTexas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team

The Situation

• Ever since Hurricane Katrina, animal issues have become an important component of emergency response

• Veterinarians must assume the lead role, but most are not prepared to provide care in a disaster situation

• How do you provide a disaster experience for veterinary students so they can enter the profession prepared to address animal issues?

Other Questions

• In a treatment situation with live animals, students are often not the decision-makers for the team

• No ownership for decisions made• Teaching to the seven core competencies:

communication, collaboration, management (self, team, system), lifelong learning, leadership, diversity, adapting to change – all within the context of veterinary emergency response

The Innovation

• Second Life® virtual environment• Social media platform• Participants are represented by avatars

they can then use to interact with others and the simulated environment

• Currently using two “islands” that are closed to outsiders (one hurricane, one tornado)

• Students as a deployed veterinary team

• Triage and treatment decisions

• Large and small animals

• Instructors play different roles (residents, owners, difficult people, reporters)

• Evaluation mechanisms to track performance

In Life

Knowledge and Persuasion

• Recommendation from an instructor on the teaching team (peer)

• Discussions with opinion leaders already using the platform

• Considerations• Potential to “deploy” students to a disaster

without putting then in harm’s way• Interactivity

Decision: Relative Advantage

• Engagement and interactivity• Ability to include seven core competencies• Students can “practice” veterinary medicine

and make triage and treatment decisions as a practitioner would (no faculty input)

• Students own their decisions including mistakes and the ability to recover from them.

Decision: Compatibility

• 4th year of veterinary medical education is based on experiential learning approaches

• Serves as a means to extend clinical learning beyond what is possible in a hospital setting

• Students are very familiar with using computer technology in classrooms and in their personal lives

Decision: Complexity

• Effective teaching using this platform requires a significant amount of man power to play the different roles

• For some actions, the platform is not very intuitive

• We have actually “pushed” the programmers to develop new tools to enhance the experience and evaluation we need

• Even though highly technical, it was easily picked up by instructors who were not particularly adept at technology

Decision: Observability

• Visited with opinion leaders and watched as their students used the platform

• Did not actually participate until after first used with students

• Observing others use the platform fostered visions for future re-invention

Decision: Trialability

• After first use, recognized it would need to be re-invented for our more specific use

• Before adoption, we were able to work with programmers to familiarize ourselves with moving and communicating with each other in the simulated environment

Implementation: Re-Invention

• Learning each time the simulation is used• Only two scenarios created, but essentially

every experience is different because of the different students

• What they say and what they do feeds how we continually develop the simulation

• Each use provides an opportunity to improve evaluation tools

Implementation: Challenges

• Every change in the simulation requires programming

• New ideas require funds, some of which are not always readily available

• Setting a realistic budget for future development

• Finding enough actors to challenge the students on the learning objectives

Confirmation: Evaluation

• Student buy-in of the scenario is vastly superior to a tabletop exercise

• Observation of engagement by students• Regular post-rotation surveys and

comments

Summary of Adoption

• Perceived attributes were favorable for adoption

• The decision was both optional and collective

• Adoption was through interpersonal channels

• The nature of the social system was very homogenous making adoption optimal

• Change agent’s promotion efforts were significant

Any Questions?Any Questions?