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Journal of Medical Education

Abstract

Patient encounters have been highlighted important for learning clinical skills. Virtual patients and standardized patients have been widely used as supplement models in medical education. Purpose: This study aims to first compare the effectiveness of using SPs and VPs from the perspectives of clinical teachers and secondly to suggest the smart choice based on the educational objectives. Methods: A questionnaire-assisted interview was conducted to gather feedback from teachers based on their experience with VPs and SPs in clinical teaching. The items for VP/SP comparison include: clinical reasoning, history taking, physical examination, procedural skills, communication, conceptualization, range of case varieties, authentic environment, interest, saving/convenience, safety/repeatability, and expenditure. The definition of each iterm was first provided to introduce teachers' text response, followed by an interview for clarification. Teachers also voted for the superiority between VP/SP, and finally suggested the choices for teaching modalities. Results: Both VP/SP had pros and cons when applied in clinical education. VPs performed better in arousing self-directed learning and clinical reasoning, providing a safe/repeatable environment and increasing case number and varieties. Using VPs is cost/time/manpower-saving for a large group, while using SPs is saving more in a small group. SPs are superior in teaching communication and personal skills. Both SPs and VPs are appropriate for objective structured clinical examination, while being unsatisfied for procedural skill and physical examination. Conclusions: Both VP and SP have their pros and cons regarding the effectiveness in clinical education, and the key of teaching success is to smartly choose between VPs and SPs.

First Page

44

Last Page

56

DOI

10.6145/jme.202212_26(4).0004

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