Objective: The study clarified differences in understanding and satisfaction between face-to-face and online training on radiation emergency medical preparedness (REMP) training.
Methods: The training was held at Hirosaki University between 2018 and 2022, with 46 face-to-face participants and 25 online participants.
Results: Face-to-face training was significantly more understandable than online for the use of the Geiger counter (P < 0.05), but the educational effect of virtual reality (VR) was not significantly different from the actual practice. For the team exercise of taking care of the victims, online resulted in a significantly higher understanding (P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Interactive exercises can be done online with equipment sent to learners, and VR is also as effective. The use of videos was more effective for first-timers to learn the practical process from a bird's-eye view, especially for team-based medical procedures.
Keywords: VR; medical preparedness; online simulations; radiation emergency.