Virtual Delivery of Simulation Education to Undergraduate Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted in-person clinical training for medical students. Simulation-based teaching is a promising tool to introduce learners to the clinical environment. MacSim is a student-led simulation workshop for learners to develop clinical competencies. The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of MacSim and participants’ perspectives regarding simulation-based teaching.
Methods
A comprehensive simulation, representative of a virtual care scenario, was delivered to 42 pre-clerkship medical students via video conferencing. In pairs, participants obtained histories and carried out management plans for simulated patients. Participants were surveyed and interviewed. Survey data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Interview transcript data were thematically analyzed.
Results
Post-simulation, participants (n=24) felt more prepared to make clinical decisions, collaborate, and communicate in a virtual setting. 92% of respondents agreed MacSim was a valuable learning experience and 96% agreed more simulation-based learning should be integrated into curricula. Emergent themes from interviews (n=12) included: 1) value of simulation fidelity, 2) value of physician feedback, and 3) effectiveness of MacSim in improving virtual clinical skills.
Conclusion
Simulation-based teaching is of importance and educational value to medical students. It may play an increasingly prevalent role in education as virtual care is likely to become more prevalent.
Article activity feed
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.20.21262347: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: The study design included comparison of pre- and post-event survey data, as well as post-event interview to assess perspectives regarding simulation teaching and COVID-19.14 The study was PIPEDA-compliant and exempted from ethics approval by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board due to it being a quality improvement project Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization After the event, one-on-one interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim with 12 randomly selected participants by one of the authors. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources 14 Statistical Analysis: Analysis was done using … SciScore for 10.1101/2021.08.20.21262347: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: The study design included comparison of pre- and post-event survey data, as well as post-event interview to assess perspectives regarding simulation teaching and COVID-19.14 The study was PIPEDA-compliant and exempted from ethics approval by the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board due to it being a quality improvement project Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization After the event, one-on-one interviews were conducted and transcribed verbatim with 12 randomly selected participants by one of the authors. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources 14 Statistical Analysis: Analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 26. Statistical Package for the Social Sciencessuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Several limitations are recognized for the present study. Sampling bias and nonresponse bias may have factored into the survey data of the present study as participants involved in the study were solely composed of participants in the simulation event. A lack of a validated survey for data collection, and a small sample size may additionally impact the validity of findings.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
-