A smartphone-based online platform for clinical skills training and assessment with standardized patients: platform development and pilot study outcomes

ABSTRACT

There are limitations and difficulties in the management of traditional in-person standardized patient (SP) practice. The latest developments in online communication tools and the COVID-19 pandemic have promoted the needs for online clinical skills training objectively. However, existing commercial online platforms may not meet the requests for SP-based medical simulation. This paper described the methodology applied to develop a smartphone-based online platform for the management of clinical skills training and assessment with remote SPs, and aimed to determine whether this new platform is acceptable or useful through a pilot run in September 2020. The post-run survey including questionnaire inspired by technological acceptance model and determinants of the perceived ease of use was used to assess the acceptability and usefulness of the platform. Twenty four-year students of clinical medicine participated in the pilot study with twenty SPs and ten faculties. Data from the post-run survey showed that there was a general recognition that the platform is easy to use among all the users. Two questions regarding the usefulness of the platform showed significant differences between the SPs/faculties and the students. More SPs found the platform useful as a training method than the students did. The faculties showed more attempts than the students to use this platform for clinical skills training in the future. This smartphone-based online platform was widely accepted among the tested students, SPs and faculties, which meets the requests and challenges of the new era. It provides an effective approach for clinical skills training and assessment with remote SPs.

KEYWORDS:

• Clinical skills training
• patient-physician interview skills
• online learning platform
• standardized patients
• medical students

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, JD. The data are not publicly available due to restrictions e.g., their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Center for Health Professions Education Development under Grant 2021MNYB08; Medical Education Branch of Chinese Medical Association under Grant 2020B-N05253; and Nanjing Medical University under Grant 2021ZC043 and 2021 LX033