School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, PO Box 376, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
School of Economics, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece.
BMC Med Educ. 2019 Nov 9;19(1):416. doi: 10.1186/s12909-019-1849-7.
Virtual Patients (VPs) may improve cognitive and behavioral skills better than traditional methods do. The aim of this paper was to investigate challenges faced by teachers and students in order to effectively implement VPs across undergraduate and postgraduate curricula. In addition, differences in student and teacher perceptions that could impact curricular integration of VPs were explored.
A two-phase descriptive study was performed: 1) evaluation of the VP design process and curricular integration, conducted upon academic medical teachers; 2) evaluation of learning and clinical reasoning experiences with VPs, from the students' perspective.
The results of this study document high acceptance of VPs by both medical teachers and students (n = 252).VPs seem to fulfill most needs as set by course directors, while they satisfy student needs and create perceptions of improved knowledge and clinical skills reasoning.
Medical educators have encountered educational challenges upon transforming the curriculum. To develop VPs, academic institutions have to pay equal attention to the needs of potential adopters and VP authors. Strategic development and use of VPs may motivate more widespread integration of VPs and lead to a high quality medical education system.
虚拟患者（VP）可能比传统方法更能提高认知和行为技能。本文旨在调查教师和学生在有效实施本科和研究生课程 VP 方面面临的挑战。此外，还探讨了可能影响 VP 课程整合的学生和教师认知差异。
进行了两阶段描述性研究：1）评估 VP 设计过程和课程整合，对医学教师进行评估；2）从学生的角度评估使用 VP 的学习和临床推理经验。
本研究的结果记录了医学教师和学生（n=252）对 VP 的高度接受。VP 似乎满足了课程主任设定的大多数需求，同时满足了学生的需求，并创造了对知识和临床技能推理的改善的认知。
医学教育工作者在改变课程时遇到了教育挑战。为了开发 VP，学术机构必须平等关注潜在采用者和 VP 作者的需求。战略性地开发和使用 VP 可能会激发更广泛的 VP 整合，并导致高质量的医学教育系统。
