Healthy
Conditions
Keywords
constructing VPs, knowledge and skills transfer
Brief summary
The aim of the study was to explore the effect of actively constructing Virtual patient (VP) cases compared with solving VP cases using 'Web-SP', Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden on knowledge gains and skills transfer in a group of pre-clerkship medical students.
Detailed description
Solving VP cases is associated with large improvements in learning but its effectiveness is dependent on active student involvement. Constructing VP cases rather than solving them may engage students more actively in encoding new information and integrating it with previous knowledge. Fourth-year medical students were included and randomized to constructing (intervention) or solving (control) four cardiopulmonary VP cases. The participants were presented with a short case overview. The control group solved the cases, whereas the intervention group also received the final diagnosis and had to complete the history, physical findings, and lab results. After a week, participants completed a transfer test involving two standardized patients presenting a respiratory case and a cardiology case, respectively. Performances were video-recorded and subsequently assessed by two blinded raters using the Reporter-Interpreter- Manager-Educator (RIME) framework. Knowledge gains were assessed using a pre- and post-test of a 95-item Multiple-Response-Questionnaire (MRQ).
Interventions
OTHERConstructing VP cases
The participants were presented with a short case overview. The control group solved the cases, whereas the intervention group also received the final diagnosis and had to complete the history, physical findings, and lab results. After a week, participants completed a transfer test involving two standardized patients presenting a respiratory case and a cardiology case, respectively. Performances were video-recorded and subsequently assessed by two blinded raters using the Reporter-Interpreter- Manager-Educator (RIME) framework. Knowledge gains were assessed using a pre- and post-test of a 95-item Multiple-Response-Questionnaire (MRQ).
OTHERSolving VP cases
See above
Sponsors
University of Copenhagen
Centre for Clinical Education
Rigshospitalet, Denmark
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* fourth-year medical students, University of Copenhagen * pre-study participation in the mandatory patient encounter skills course
Exclusion criteria
* medical students who had taken the three pre-clerkship years at other universities, because of curriculum discrepancies
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation of the medical students' management of a simulated patient encounter using a RIME-structured scoring form | After working with the virtual patient cases for one week +/- 3 days | The scoring form includes assessment on the roles Reporter, Interpreter, Manager and Educators and has been validated for patient encounters like described below. The requirements for the RIME elements have been defined in with a cardiology professor and a consultant respiratory physician. The medical students are exposed to two encounters with simulated patients after working with the virtual patients on their own. The students will obtain history and perform physical examination from the simulated patient for 15 minutes. The will be provided a journal form that can be quickly filled in, the patient encounter is video recorded. After this they have 20 minutes to write the journal in an electronic format. The video recorded patient encounter and the journal will be assessed by two physicians who have experience in rating medical students performance with the scoring form, the raters are blinded for if the students belong to the intervention arm of the study or not. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple Choice/Answers Questionnaire | When entering the study and after working with the virtual patient cases for one week +/- 3 days | A delta value for the medical students' knowledge of respiratory medicine and cardiology after working with the virtual patients will be obtained. The students have been taught respiratory medicine, but not cardiology. Half the virtual patient cases the students have been working with are on respiratory medicine and the other half are on cardiology. The questionnaire has been checked by a cardiology professor and a consultant respiratory physician to ensure validity. |
Outcome results
None listed