Evaluating Virtual Patient Interaction Fidelity With Advanced Communication Skills Learners

Stephanie Carnell,Anna Miles,Benjamin Lok

doi:10.3389/frvir.2021.801793

Stephanie Carnell, Anna Miles + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.801793

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Abstract

Previous research in educational medical simulation has drawn attention to the interplay between a simulation’s fidelity and its educational effectiveness. As virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used in medical simulations for education purposes, a focus on the relationship between virtual patients’ fidelity and educational effectiveness should also be investigated. In this paper, we contribute to this investigation by evaluating the use of a virtual patient selection interface (in which learners interact with a virtual patient via a set of pre-defined choices) with advanced medical communication skills learners. To this end, we integrated virtual patient interviews into a graduate-level course for speech-language therapists over the course of 2 years. In the first cohort, students interacted with three VPs using only a chat interface. In the second cohort, students used both a chat interface and a selection interface to interact with the VPs. Our results suggest that these advanced learners view the selection interfaces as more appropriate for novice learners and that their communication behavior was not significantly affected by using the selection interface. Based on these results, we suggest that selection interfaces may be more appropriate for novice communication skills learners, but for applications in which selection interfaces are to be used with advanced learners, additional design research may be needed to best target these interfaces to advanced learners.

Highlights

Virtual patients (VPs) are computer simulations of patients that allow healthcare students to practice a variety of clinical skills, ranging from physical exams to medical interviewing
We identified three message production metrics to evaluate the impact of the selection interface: 4.2.1 Student Survey Responses For students in the SELECTION condition, we asked them a series of questions about their experiences using the chat and Guided Selection interface to understand their perceptions of when each interface would be most useful
Cognitive load theory suggests that low fidelity simulations are often more suitable for novice learners, and our results suggest that advanced learners echo this suggestion: they recommended that the selection interface may be helpful for tasks such as learning which questions to ask and how to ask them

Summary

Introduction

Virtual patients (VPs) are computer simulations of patients that allow healthcare students to practice a variety of clinical skills, ranging from physical exams to medical interviewing. Past work has established that VPs contribute to higher learning outcomes (Consorti et al, 2012; Cook et al, 2013; Hirumi et al, 2016). Past research notes that VPs—and more generally, simulationbased medical education—need more investigation regarding the interplay between a simulation’s fidelity and its instructional effectiveness (Norman et al, 2012; Cook et al, 2013). Almost all of the twenty-four studies examined demonstrated that the high-fidelity simulations did not have a significant advantage over the low-fidelity simulations (Norman et al, 2012), despite what the authors note as the general assumption that higher fidelity simulations will yield better learning transfer to real-world scenarios.

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