Abstract
“Ready to Practice?”(R2P) is a virtual patient simulation designed for undergraduate medical and pharmacy students. After initial prototyping, R2P developed into a screen-based virtual patient (VP) simulation with an intuitive interface using photorealistic images of people and places with speech bubbles and decision menus. We describe the design of the VP, findings from student experiences with the software, and the potential of VPs for interprofessional learning. We used a mixed methods study to assess students’ perceptions of the VP as a learning tool. Qualitative data were gathered using semi-structured interviews and observations, and quantitative data through the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and an evaluation questionnaire. Overall, participants showed significantly improved RIPLS scores after participation in the simulation (78.78 to 82.25, p < 0.0001), including in the Positive Professional Identify domain (p < 0.001). Students also showed significant improvement in RIPLS scores in the Teamwork and Collaboration domain when pharmacy and medical students were working together in interprofessional pairs (40.75 to 43.00, p < 0.006) but not when working alone (n.s.). Five themes emerged from interviews where participants identified specific interprofessional insights into each other’s roles and skills. Students found the VP engaging and valuable for their learning and their understanding of teamwork.
Highlights
A fast-changing healthcare environment has presented medical and health sciences education with a significant challenge [1]
The increase in Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) scores was largely due to medical student participants, who showed significant increases in scores both when working alone with the virtual patient (VP) and when working in interprofessional pairs
The majority of the medical and pharmacy students acknowledged that the pharmacy students had a better knowledge of the medicines and the diagnosis of acute kidney injury (AKI), whereas the medical students were acknowledged as better at taking a patient history
Summary
A fast-changing healthcare environment has presented medical and health sciences education with a significant challenge [1]. There is increasing pressure for students to develop interprofessional communication skills and knowledge of other clinicians’ roles and abilities in order to practice safely and effectively in interprofessional healthcare teams [3,4]. To meet these learning requirements, students need to practice applying their clinical knowledge and skills in a variety of patient cases and medical conditions. R2P is a web-based simulation written in HTML5 using Javascript (Ecma International, Geneva, Switzerland) and libraries from the Monkey cross-platform scripting language (Blitz Research Ltd., Auckland, New Zealand) It is a screen-based patient-case simulation that enables students to experience a critical and challenging emergency situation in renal care.
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