The effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) training against standard (face-to-face, didactic) training of ultrasound-guided nerve blocks for medical students.

We previously designed a virtual reality-based simulator to help train novices in ultrasound-guided needling skills necessary for safe ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesia. In this single centre, randomised controlled study, we compared the performance and error rates of novices trained by a human faculty augmented by the use of this virtual reality simulator (virtual reality-assisted training), versus novices trained wholly by humans (conventional training). A standardised teaching protocol using gold-standard deliberate practice, rigorous blinding, iterative training of assessors, and validated global rating scale and composite error score checklists were used to assess skills learning. We found non-superiority of the virtual reality-assisted training versus conventional training based on competency and error outcomes.