The article reviewed in this essay concerns a virtual exercise that involved medical workers and first responders. The effort simulated an influenza pandemic, which had led to the declaration of a state of emergency and an overwhelming surge of patients at hospitals. As such, the hospital featured in the exercise activated its emergency response plan, which involved the performance of triage (Beedasy & Ramloll, 2010). The participants were first responders and hospital workers tasked with performing the activity to help sort the patients. The novelty of the exercise was in that it was performed entirely virtually and online, without requiring participants to physically attend or endangering people. The hospital’s reception areas were simulated using software specifically designed for the purpose, and the participants demonstrated their abilities there.
The primary point of the article is that modern technology enables new training modes that are comparable in effectiveness to traditional physical training while taking a fraction of the time and effort to complete. They do not require the usage of physical resources, which enables larger-scale simulations than those possible in the real world. At the same time, the authors allege that these methods do not necessarily result in lower-quality training than what physical experiences would provide. While practical knowledge is essential to many aspects of medical treatment, triage relies more on the understanding of procedures and symptoms, especially in emergency workers. To that end, the authors test the methods developed by reviewing the participants’ knowledge of relevant topics before and after the training. The expectation was that their understanding would be improved considerably, establishing the training’s effectiveness and competitiveness with traditional approaches.
Overall, the participants’ responses to the exercise were positive, with most rating it highly. The only participant to view the exercise negatively commented that they had to leave to attend to a real patient during the drill, so this score is not necessarily valid. The trainees remarked that their knowledge of how triage is implemented had been improved considerably by the exercise. Additionally, they claimed that the training was an opportunity for members of different organizations to cooperate, which were usually difficult to obtain due to the commitments required. However, there were also issues in the exercise, notably one involving computer usage. Some participants lacked the competencies required to operate the simulation, while others’ computers were not powerful enough to run it smoothly. Still, the simulation represented a real scenario with considerable accuracy, including some unforeseen situations that may take place.
The information in the article highlights how training can be performed using different media and how these modes create variation in the results. Online training can help people internalize knowledge with minimized time and effort commitment, though it requires additional competencies and a capable enough device. Both of these issues have become less prevalent recently as adoption of the Internet and computing technology rises, increasing the viability of the approach considerably. The additional advantages of online training, such as the ability for different organizations to cooperate more easily, should also be considered. With that said, traditional physical training should not be disregarded, either, especially where it concerns the medical profession. A number of skills can only be learned through direct hands-on practice and cannot be substituted with knowledge. Different training approaches should be used in tandem to maximize efficiency and instruct workers in all of the skills that they require.
References
Beedasy, J., & Ramloll, R. (2010). Lessons learned from a pandemic influenza triage exercise in a 3D interactive multiuser virtual learning environment—Play2Train. Journal of Emergency Management, 8(4), 53-59.