Developing a virtual patient: design, usability, and learning effect in communication skills training

BACKGROUND

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.

METHODS

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.

RESULTS

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.

CONCLUSION

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.

Exploring spatial ability in healthcare students and the relationship to training with virtual and actual objects

INTRODUCTION

The relationship between the spatial ability levels of students and anatomy education is not well established in the literature, but it was stated that students should take short-term training during the first years of their education. There is limited number of studies on this topic. In that respect, the aim of this study was to determine the spatial ability levels of medical, dental and nursing students and to evaluate whether this ability level showed difference with respect to faculty, anatomy courses attended or short-term training, or not.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study sample was composed of 1071 students. Data were collected by Personal Information Form, Visualization of Views Test (VoVT) and Cross Section Test (CST). Data analyses were done by SPSS 21 package software.

RESULTS

Students were determined to have medium level spatial ability. Medical and dental students were found to have higher spatial ability levels than nursing students. Medical and nursing students' CST scores showed significant difference after taking anatomy course. After short-term training, both CST and VoVT scores of students differed significantly.

CONCLUSION

Supporting anatomy courses with education materials appropriate for the spatial ability level of students and introducing spatial ability development trainings in small groups would aid in increasing spatial ability levels of students.

Competencies of nursing students in the provision of spiritual care and the factors affecting spiritual caregiving

PURPOSE

Nursing care is a holistic practice that contains biological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual elements. Spiritual care is also one of the core aspects of a holistic care approach, The provision of optimal spiritual care requires a good understanding of the issue by nurses. The present study determines the competencies of nursing students in spiritual care and the status of spiritual caregiving.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The study has a descriptive, cross-sectional, and qualitative research method of answers to follow-up questions. The study was conducted with 468 nursing students who are 1-4 years in a BSN program in Turkey. Personal information form, semi-structured interview form, Spiritual Caregiving Scale, and Spiritual Care Competence Scale were used for the collection of data.

FINDINGS

The average scores recorded by the participants in the Spiritual Caregiving and Spiritual Care Competence Scales were 145.60 ± 20.63 (the perception of spirituality and spiritual care is moderate-high) and 102.92 ± 15.67 (the competence of the nurse in spiritual care is moderate-high), respectively. It was found that nearly half of the respondent students had never heard of the concept of spiritual care, nor did they have any knowledge of such care, and almost none had undergone training in this subject.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Important to add spiritual care to the nursing curriculum as a separate course or subject, and to raise awareness of students through applied teaching methods.