Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Education and Informatics, Hacettepe University, Altindag, Ankara, Turkey.
Faculty of Nursing, Department of Pediatric Nursing, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
BMC Med Educ. 2023 Nov 22;23(1):891. doi: 10.1186/s12909-023-04860-7.
Literature shows that Virtual Patients (VPs) find extensive usage in the field of health sciences, especially in the post-pandemic period. VPs are successfully utilized in developing various effective skills like medical interview. However, this technology is quite new in Turkey and has not yet been used in communication skills training in a structured form. This research aimed to develop a virtual patient to improve the communication skills of medical students.
Developmental research method was used in the study. The implementation phase involved the one group posttest quasi-experimental design. The study group comprised of experts in various fields and 213 medical students. Needs Analysis Form, Scenario Building Form, System Validation Form, Communication Skills Assessment Form, and Interview Form were used as data collection tools. The research primarily concentrated on ensuring minimal errors within the system and enhancing students' communication skill scores.
The study found that VP was effective in teaching communication skills. Communication skills improved from a mean score of 36.74 in the first interview with 15 students to 74.2 in the final application with 198 students. It was determined that the students who practiced repeatedly (n = 26) made 17% more effective interviews than their first practices (score: 89.2). The script matching of the VP was 83%. Other data obtained from the students generally showed that the VP application was developed in accordance with the purpose, that it was user-friendly, and that the scenarios were adequate.
VPs like this have the potential to develop skills such as history taking, clinical reasoning, etc., which are very important in the field of health sciences.
文献表明，虚拟患者（VP）在医学领域得到广泛应用，尤其是在后疫情时期。VP 在培养各种有效技能方面发挥了重要作用，例如医学访谈。然而，在土耳其，这项技术还相当新颖，尚未以结构化形式用于沟通技能培训。本研究旨在开发虚拟患者以提高医学生的沟通技能。
本研究采用发展研究方法。实施阶段采用单组后测试准实验设计。研究组由各领域的专家和 213 名医学生组成。使用需求分析表、情景构建表、系统验证表、沟通技巧评估表和访谈表作为数据收集工具。该研究主要集中在确保系统内最小错误和提高学生的沟通技能分数上。
研究发现，VP 在教授沟通技能方面非常有效。学生的沟通技能从与 15 名学生的第一次访谈中的平均 36.74 分提高到与 198 名学生的最后应用中的 74.2 分。练习过多次的学生（n=26）比第一次练习时的访谈效果提高了 17%（分数：89.2）。VP 的脚本匹配率为 83%。学生获得的其他数据普遍表明，该 VP 应用程序符合目的、用户友好，并且情景充足。
像这样的 VP 有潜力培养健康科学领域非常重要的技能，例如病史采集、临床推理等。
