Department of Medicine and Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Insubria, Viale Borri, 57, 21100, Varese, Italy.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Sep 25;20(1):332. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02245-8.
The Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic brought significant disruption to in-hospital medical training. Virtual reality simulating the clinical environment has the potential to overcome this issue and can be particularly useful to supplement the traditional in-hospital medical training during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospital access is banned for medical students. The aim of this study was to assess medical students' perception on fully online training including simulated clinical scenarios during COVID-19 pandemic.
From May to July 2020 when in-hospital training was not possible, 122 students attending the sixth year of the course of Medicine and Surgery underwent online training sessions including an online platform with simulated clinical scenarios (Body Interact™) of 21 patient-based cases. Each session focused on one case, lasted 2 h and was divided into three different parts: introduction, virtual patient-based training, and debriefing. In the same period, adjunctive online training with formal presentation and discussion of clinical cases was also given. At the completion of training, a survey was performed, and students filled in a 12-item anonymous questionnaire on a voluntary basis to rate the training quality. Results were reported as percentages or with numeric ratings from 1 to 4. Due to the study design, no sample size was calculated.
One hundred and fifteen students (94%) completed the questionnaire: 104 (90%) gave positive evaluation to virtual reality training and 107 (93%) appreciated the format in which online training was structured. The majority of participants considered the platform of virtual reality training realistic for the initial clinical assessment (77%), diagnostic activity (94%), and treatment options (81%). Furthermore, 97 (84%) considered the future use of this virtual reality training useful in addition to the apprenticeship at patient's bedside. Finally, 32 (28%) participants found the online access difficult due to technical issues.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, online medical training including simulated clinical scenarios avoided training interruption and the majority of participant students gave a positive response on the perceived quality of this training modality. During this time frame, a non-negligible proportion of students experienced difficulties in online access to this virtual reality platform.
新冠肺炎（COVID-19）大流行给院内医疗培训带来了重大干扰。虚拟现实模拟临床环境具有克服这一问题的潜力，在 COVID-19 大流行期间，当医院禁止医学生进入时，它可以特别有助于补充传统的院内医疗培训。本研究的目的是评估医学生对包括 COVID-19 大流行期间模拟临床场景在内的全在线培训的看法。
在无法进行院内培训的 2020 年 5 月至 7 月期间，122 名第六年医学和外科学课程的学生参加了在线培训课程，包括 21 个基于患者的病例的在线模拟临床场景平台（Body Interact ™）。每个课程都侧重于一个病例，持续 2 小时，分为三个不同部分：介绍、基于虚拟患者的培训和汇报。在同一时期，还提供了附加的在线培训，包括正式的演示和临床病例讨论。培训结束时，进行了一项调查，学生自愿填写一份 12 项匿名问卷，对培训质量进行评分。结果以百分比或 1 到 4 的数字评分报告。由于研究设计，未计算样本量。
115 名学生（94%）完成了问卷：104 名（90%）对虚拟现实培训给予了积极评价，107 名（93%）赞赏在线培训的结构化格式。大多数参与者认为虚拟现实培训平台对于初始临床评估（77%）、诊断活动（94%）和治疗选择（81%）具有现实性。此外，97 名（84%）参与者认为除了在患者床边的学徒期外，未来使用这种虚拟现实培训是有用的。最后，32 名（28%）参与者因技术问题发现在线访问困难。
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，包括模拟临床场景的在线医疗培训避免了培训中断，大多数参与者学生对这种培训模式的感知质量给予了积极的回应。在这段时间内，相当一部分学生在在线访问这个虚拟现实平台时遇到了困难。
