The (future) doctor will see you now: Piloting a longitudinal virtual patient in medical education, simulating general practice

Abstract

Introduction

Virtual patients provide numerous learning opportunities for medical students, yet only support one-off patient interactions. To emulate general practice, allowing multiple encounters with a single patient, a new longitudinal virtual patient (LVP) was developed.

Methods

The LVP was integrated into 2nd year at a graduate-entry medical school, in the 2019/2020 academic year. Students were asked about their prior experience and expectations of LVPs, before they engaged with two consultations and one results session. Data were collected from this survey and from the engagement with the LVP. Feedback was collected and thematically grouped.

Results

Survey responses indicated that 1.7% (2/120) had previous experience with virtual patients, and the majority expected the LVP to make a difference to their clinical reasoning. Out of the 142 students engaged with the LVP, 53% completed over 75% of the work. Informal feedback arose around accessibility, professional learning and development, and engagement with the LVP module.

Discussion

The data indicate that LVPs are agreeable to medical students, with good engagement and positive reports of clinical learning.

Conclusion

Future work exploring reasons of engagement or lack of, will support refinement of the LVP to accommodate the learning needs of the medical students.

Keywords:

• General
• clinical skills
• patient management
• methods
• e-learning/ computers.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Author contributions

CJ, DH, CF, HG and SD developed the premise of the work.

CJ, DH, CF, HG and SD wrote teaching episodes for the work.

All authors participated in quality assurance of the work.

TDM wrote the first draft of the article.

All authors edited and commented on the versions for this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas Dale MacLaine

Dr. Thomas Dale MacLaine, BSc (Hons), PhD, is an MB ChB student at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.

Cornelia Juengst

Dr. Cornelia Juengst, PhD, MRCGP, FHEA, is a Senior Clinical Teaching Fellow for MB ChB, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.

David Harris

Dr. David Harris, MB, ChB, MRCGP, is a Clinical Teaching Fellow for MB ChB, Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK, and a General Practice Partner at Forrest Medical Centre, Coventry, UK.

Catherine Fenn

Ms. Catherine Fenn, PG, Dip, CMALT, is Senior Academic Technologist for MB ChB, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.

Helen Gabathuler

Dr. Helen Gabathuler, BM, MRCP, MRCGP, FHEA, is an Associate Professor at Warwick Medical School, Coventry, UK and a General Practitioner at Rother House Medical Centre, Stratford upon Avon, UK.

Sue Davies

Dr. Sue Davies, BMedSci, BMBS, MRCGP, MMedEduc, FHEA, Academic Lead for General Practice, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick CV4 7AL.