{"id":272,"date":"2025-05-29T10:48:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T14:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/?p=272"},"modified":"2025-09-19T11:34:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T15:34:58","slug":"enhancing-empathy-in-pediatric-residency-through-immersive-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/2025\/enhancing-empathy-in-pediatric-residency-through-immersive-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing Empathy in Pediatric Residency Through Immersive Design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Enhancing Empathy in Pediatric Residency Through Immersive Design \n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                                    \n\n<p>Erika MacGregor<\/p>\n\n\n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"project-summary\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Project Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Empathy is fundamental to quality healthcare, yet traditional residency training in Canada underemphasizes the development of empathetic communication skills\u2014especially in pediatrics, where clinicians must navigate complex interactions with children and their families. Erika MacGregor\u2019s thesis investigates this gap and proposes a novel approach using <strong>Virtual Reality (VR)<\/strong> and <strong>Human-Centered Design (HCD)<\/strong> to create immersive, feedback-rich learning experiences for pediatric residents.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grounded in theories of experiential learning, the research critiques the limitations of Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) and identifies the undervaluation of soft skills within current curricula. Through an extensive literature review and critical analysis, the thesis highlights how VR-based <strong>Simulation-Based Medical Education (SBME)<\/strong> can offer safe, repeatable, and emotionally engaging scenarios that enable residents to practice and improve communication competencies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The project contributes a <strong>design framework<\/strong> for empathy training tools that center the learner\u2019s experience, support reflection, and incorporate <strong>real-time, multimodal feedback<\/strong>. This work advances the design of meaningful educational technologies in medical training and aligns with the lab\u2019s mission to enhance wellbeing through inclusive, positive technology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Keywords<\/strong>: Virtual Reality, Pediatric Residency, Human-Centered Design, Empathy Training, Medical Education, Learning Feedback, Simulation-Based Learning&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n                \n        <div class=\"cu-column cu-component not-contained mx-auto grid max-w-5xl md:grid-cols-3 gap-6 md:gap-10\">\n            \n\n    \n    <div class=\"not-prose cu-card rounded-lg @container md:max-w-xl flex flex-col gap-3 bg-white shadow-lg shadow-cu-black-100 text-center group duration-300 ease-in hover:scale-[1.02] hover:shadow-cu-black-200\">\n                    <figure class=\"px-6 pt-8 pb-2 mb-2 overflow-hidden rounded-t-lg cu-figure--round\">\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"\n                src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/151\/2025\/05\/Erika-MacGregor-headshot-300x300-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" \/>\n                                <\/figure>\n        \n        <header class=\"px-6 first:mt-6\">\n            <h2 class=\"text-lg font-semibold text-cu-black @sm:md:text-xl leading-6 @sm:md:leading-8\">\n                                    Erika\n                    MacGregor\n                            <\/h2>\n        <\/header>\n\n        <div class=\"flex flex-col px-6\">\n            <ul class=\"space-y-2 text-sm text-cu-black-700 @sm:md:text-base\">\n                \n                                    <li>\n                        <strong class=\"font-semibold break-all text-cu-red-700 hover:underline\">\n                            <a href=\"mailto:ErikaMacGregor@cmail.carleton.ca\">\n                                Email\n                                Erika\n                            <\/a>\n                        <\/strong>\n                    <\/li>\n                \n                            <\/ul>\n        <\/div>\n\n                    <footer class=\"px-6 pt-3 mt-auto text-white md:pt-5\">\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/people\/erika-macgregor\/\" class=\"cu-button cu-button--red cu-button--small\">\n                    View Profile\n                <\/a>\n            <\/footer>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n        <\/div>\n\n        \n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Summary Empathy is fundamental to quality healthcare, yet traditional residency training in Canada underemphasizes the development of empathetic communication skills\u2014especially in pediatrics, where clinicians must navigate complex interactions with children and their families. Erika MacGregor\u2019s thesis investigates this gap and proposes a novel approach using Virtual Reality (VR) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) to create [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":401,"featured_media":391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-mdes"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/positivetechlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}