Family Focal Point VR Project
28 de August de 2024
Family Focal Point VR is a Virtual Reality training experience for upskilling Family Focal Point specialist staff abilities in order to meet the requirements stated by Doctors Without Borders.
The aim of this VR training experience is to expose DWB staff to different highly realistic situations in which they need to be excellent in order to increase their efficiency. The users will need to make decisions that will affect the course of the learning experience. They will then experience the consequences of the decisions they make (maybe mistakes) getting feedback on them. And thus, being able to practice until they master both the knowledge and the emotions needed to succeed in such situations. Once finished the training, whenever they will face the real situation, they will already feel like they have already faced that and will be able to implement their learnings both on the knowledge and emotional side improving their performance.
Doctors Without Borders provides training to its staff. Part of this training aims to provide its staff with the necessary skills to manage situations where they need to approach the family of a Doctors Without Borders staff member to break bad news. Very frequently these bad news are related to staff retention in a foreign country. Among these staff we can find three profiles which are very closely involved with the family approach process. These are:
- Family Focal Point, they are the ones in charge of breaking news to the family, identifying family members and their emotional state to conduct the process in the best possible way.
- Psychologists of the Staff Health Unit, they are the ones who will communicate with the Family Focal Point, to pass the messages and take the information they gather.
- IMT Leaders/Deputies, and Field Coordinators, they need to choose who will be the Family Focal Point, and will be very attentive to families reactions.
- CMT Leaders/Deputies, DMA, will be very attentive to families’ reactions.
These profiles, and especially Family Focal Point, receive training on how to approach these families either as online self-learning or as a face-to-face workshop experience. The learning experience we are developing will be used by Family Focal Point (and also other profiles) as a:
- Closing practical activity for the online self-learning so users can practice, re-inforce and evaluate what they have learned.
- Discovery activity for the face-to-face workshop so users can have this realistic experience and then share their challenges, findings, emotions and build learning outcomes with other colleagues and learning facilitators.
