Abstract
Introduction Older adults are at risk of falls, which increases further in care homes. Due to the complexity of care home residents’ conditions and an increasing ageing population, it is important for care staff to have knowledge and understanding in falls awareness, prevention, and management in order to support their residents. Literature searches identified that barriers to care staff implementing falls prevention strategies included limited knowledge of staff and insufficient resources (including lack of staff training). There is scarce research regarding methods to deliver training to care staff, however emerging research in Virtual Reality (VR) as a training method had promise due to increased knowledge retention, and application into practice. Stakeholder patient and public involvement and engagement determined that VR as a training method had potential value.
Methods The second study as part of a multi-phase project, including two research phases and one technology development phase. The second research study was a mixed methods pragmatic study exploring the feasibility of the VR proof-of-concept, across seven care homes across the North West (n=40).
Results Engagement, immersion and enjoyment were key factors for acceptability of a training method. The training suited the learning styles of care staff, and VR was accepted as a training method. Utilisation of a case study resident increased empathy for the resident experience. Feedback for development included additional locations, scenarios, and interactable items. Barriers and facilitators of acceptability and adoption were identified.
Conclusion Identifying a potentially effective method of training for a complex intervention may influence the creation of future training programmes for care homes: to assist in increasing care staff knowledge, retention of information, and application of knowledge into practice. This in turn may improve the quality of care delivered and resident outcomes. Additional research is required to develop the proof-of-concept further, and feasibility tested further.