A qualitative study of postgraduate students' perceptions of virtual patients in emergency medicine tutorials

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate students' reactions to introducing virtual patients into a postgraduate emergency medicine curriculum. Methods: Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews were subjected to a thematic analysis. A convenient sample of seven postgraduate doctors in training enrolled in the diploma program participated in the study. Results: The results indicate that participants' reactions to including virtual patients in tutorials yielded six themes: (a) Virtual patients are game-informed learning; (b) A virtual patient tutorial is collaborative learning; (c) Virtual patient is an authentic activity; (d) Virtual patients encourage reflection; (e) Virtual patients encourage clinical reasoning; and (f) Integrate virtual patients into the curriculum. Conclusions: The implication of this study is that the virtual patient is a significant learning resource in postgraduate emergency medicine. Virtual patients may be used for independent study or collaborative learning. The vi)