Title: Student Perception of VPL as a Learning Tool

Biography:

Naail Mohammed Ghazi is a 4th-year MBBS student at Gulf Medical University, Ajman. He is a highly motivated medical student with a strong passion for research and medical education. He has special interests in surgical pathology, GI pathology. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance in his school days.  Outside of medicine, he has eclectic interests ranging from motorsports, chess, world politics, and playing the piano.

Abstract

Introduction: Virtual patient learning (VPL), is a high-fidelity online simulation system, that allows for the simulation of real-life clinical scenarios. As a result of the mandatory lockdown and increased infection risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical students faced issues with regard to training. Virtual simulation platforms allow medical students to learn in a life-like situation. Given the advantages of VPL, we wish to understand the medical student perceptions of VPL as a learning tool.
Materials and Methods: A pilot study was conducted which involved the distribution of a self-administered, validated questionnaire among Phase 2 (years 2 and 3) and Phase 3 (year 4) medical students. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 27. The Chi-square test/ Fisher's Exact tests were used to assess the association between the perception of students and selected factors.
Results: Most of the respondents (n=87) were females (69.5%, n=66), equal to or above the age of 20 (63.2%, n=60) and in Phase II (73.7%, n=70). Among the respondents, the percentage of participants who agreed on the importance of VPL for building knowledge, improving clinical reasoning, and communication skills were 98%, 99%, and 96% respectively. No significant association was found between age, gender, phase of the study in relation to the aforementioned domains (p>0.05 for the three variables). Conclusions: Most participants have a positive perception of VPL as a learning tool. Based on this study, VPL can be used in support of medical students' clinical reasoning and communication skills in a safe learning environment.