IDIA is designing an interactive virtual training simulator for Rutgers University’s School of Health Professions. The project immerses students within TeamSTEPPS, Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety. Developed by AHRQ, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, TeamSTEPPS is an interprofessional communication framework providing interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork tools aimed at optimizing patient outcomes by improving communication among healthcare professionals. It is AHRQ’s signature curriculum to improve patient safety by training health care teams to communicate and practice effective teamwork. TeamSTEPPS trains staff in teamwork skills to lead medical teamwork improvement initiatives in an organization, from initial concept development through sustainment of positive changes
Students will learn best practice interprofessional communication strategies and apply them in lab-based scenarios in a single-player simulator created in the 3D game engine of Unity. The experience is designed with branched dialogue trees to provide decision making opportunities to assess learned concepts as they are applied to various healthcare scenarios. The project was recently presented at the National Academies of Practice (NAP) annual conference.
