Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
J Genet Couns. 2021 Aug;30(4):1074-1083. doi: 10.1002/jgc4.1490. Epub 2021 Jul 26.
Travel restrictions, physical distancing, and limits to clinical placements due to the global pandemic raised enormous challenges for genetic counseling education in 2020. In response, we created authentic virtual clinical experiences in our Master of Genetic Counseling program, mimicking clinical practice: virtual simulation with standardized clients, and virtual clinical placements, including intake calls, triage, consultations, teamwork and time management, and genetic counseling with standardized clients. The virtual clinical experiences involved online pre-brief, simulation, and debrief. We aimed to evaluate students' satisfaction with this learning method. Between April and November 2020, we distributed an anonymous online survey to all participating students using a modified version of a validated satisfaction with simulation scale. We analyzed the combined responses from first- and second-year virtual clinical experiences using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The total number of possible responses was 120. The mean response rate was 68.36% (n = 82.03), with a mean of 16.41 participants responding to each survey from each year group. Of the first-year participants, 53% (n = 10) had not observed a genetic counseling consultation before attending the virtual clinical placement. Overall, 92.5% of responses indicated that students were satisfied with the virtual clinical experiences (SD = 0.05). 100% (n = 82) of responses indicated that working with standardized clients was beneficial to learning, encouraged reflection on clinical ability and was a valuable learning experience overall. However, 37.78% (n = 17) of those who participated in the virtual simulation found that the use of Zoom detracted from their clinical learning. The virtual clinical experiences increased first-year students' confidence about clinical placement and prepared second-year students for telehealth. In conclusion, the adaptation to virtual clinical experiences enhanced learning for most students, prepared them for practice, met the requirements of the accreditation body and enabled all of our final year students to graduate on time.
由于全球大流行，旅行限制、身体距离以及临床实习机会受限，给 2020 年的遗传咨询教育带来了巨大挑战。因此，我们在遗传咨询硕士课程中创建了真实的虚拟临床体验，模拟临床实践：与标准化客户进行虚拟模拟，以及虚拟临床实习，包括接诊电话、分诊、咨询、团队合作和时间管理，以及与标准化客户进行遗传咨询。虚拟临床体验包括在线预简报、模拟和汇报。我们旨在评估学生对这种学习方法的满意度。2020 年 4 月至 11 月，我们使用经过验证的模拟满意度量表的修改版本，向所有参与学生分发了匿名在线调查。我们使用描述性统计和内容分析对第一年和第二年虚拟临床经验的综合反应进行了分析。可能的总回复数为 120。回复率平均为 68.36%（n=82.03%），每个年级组平均有 16.41 名参与者对每个调查做出回应。在第一年的参与者中，53%（n=10）在参加虚拟临床实习之前没有观察过遗传咨询咨询。总体而言，92.5%的学生表示对虚拟临床经验感到满意（SD=0.05）。100%（n=82）的学生表示，与标准化客户合作有助于学习，鼓励对临床能力的反思，总体而言是一次有价值的学习体验。然而，37.78%（n=17）参加虚拟模拟的学生认为使用 Zoom 会影响他们的临床学习。虚拟临床经验提高了一年级学生对临床实习的信心，并为二年级学生做好了远程医疗的准备。总之，适应虚拟临床经验增强了大多数学生的学习效果，为他们的实践做好了准备，满足了认证机构的要求，并使我们所有的应届学生都能按时毕业。
