Evaluation of interactive video based scenario to teach professionalism to medical interns

Effective teaching of professionalism to students has been an issue for Medical schools. Although the key concepts of professionalism are well described in the literature, institutions still struggle with how to efficiently demonstrate problems in professionalism. Medical schools have an obligation to ensure that their educational programmes are designed explicitly to nurture the development of professional values. Although the importance of the informal and hidden curriculum cannot be overlooked, the formal curriculum should not be discounted as an important contributor to professional development. The introduction of role-play and simulated patients is now providing an appropriate environment in which to develop professional skills. Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online interactive education tool developed to augment the Personal Professional Development Curriculum at RCSI. The education tool comprised of several videos which accumulated to create one video based scenario in which students have to role play and problem solve. There were also several MCQs to test the students knowledge of the subject. Students from Senior Cycle 1 (N=26) were invited to participate in the evaluation of the Virtual Patient in order to explore student’s views on the usefulness and acceptability of the VP and give insight into factors that will drive the development and improvement of the VP to enhance the quality of this online education resource and maximize its educational benefits. Virtual Patients can be used to provoke reflection, stimulate discussion, help learners confront their feeling and give students practice in responding to challenges. Overall we found the Virtual Patient to be a useful and engaging learning tool to help students develop professional values.