Introduction: Management of cardiac arrests are a vital part of a doctor’s job. Although there is no data on the percentage of medical students who will witness an arrest, a study of Norwegian students found that 72% had witnessed defibrillation, and 47% had participated in CPR [1]. Anecdotally, UK medical students may never witness a cardiac arrest and subsequently the first arrest they attend is as a qualified doctor. It has been shown that simulation can improve the quality of care during a cardiac arrest [2]. This lesson aimed to utilise the immersive technology of the Gener8 room (interactive, immersive room designed to enhance medical education and simulation) to create a high-fidelity experience of a cardiac arrest situation. The outcome was to improve confidence and competence in management of cardiac arrest.

Methods: Medical students were informed that they would be undertaking a simple lesson. It appeared to them that the lesson was going badly, with the interactive technology failing. They were sent out of the room temporarily so the tutor could ‘fix the technology’. However, after 30 seconds, an emergency buzzer was activated, the students re-entered the room and were faced with a cardiac arrest situation. Students were asked to rate their confidence around the management of cardiac arrests before and after the simulation and share free text comments including their enjoyment of the session.

Results: There were 49 responses. The mean confidence rating before the session was 3.59 with a standard deviation of 2 and a variance of 4. This rose to a mean confidence score of 7.71 with a standard deviation of 1.47 and a variance of 2.16 after the session. 100% of the participants stated that they enjoyed the session. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with the students particularly enjoying the realism and surprise element of the simulation.

Anna Homes are Resident Doctors working in the North East of England. Anna is an Internal Medical trainee who has completed a one year Teaching and Research Fellowship mainly focusing on the use of immersive technology to improve medical simulation and learning. Chloe is a second year Foundation Doctor with an interest in Medical Education.