Learner Acceptance of Using Virtual Patient Encounters to Train Foreign Healthcare Professionals in Swedish

2017 ◽  
pp. 379-393
Author(s):  
Uno G. H. Fors ◽  
Olivier Courteille

Healthcare professionals need good communication skills to be able to communicate with patients. In such provider-patient communication, the professional needs to be well understood by the patient, but also be able to understand subtle parts of a medical history taking dialogue with worried, sick or mentally affected patients. Virtual Patients (VPs) – learning environments that simulate encounters between a patient and a physician – were used to prepare 26 immigrating professionals in Swedish for healthcare practitioners. The professionals were speaking nine different foreign languages and used two different VP systems to train patient communication. Almost all participants welcomed the use of VPs for training communication in healthcare Swedish and 19 of the 26 users indicated that they considered that VPs should be mandatory to use in future courses. Targeted individual training in provider-patient communication with Virtual Patients seems to be of great educational value and well accepted by immigrating healthcare professionals.

Author(s):  
Uno G. H. Fors ◽  
Olivier Courteille

Healthcare professionals need good communication skills to be able to communicate with patients. In such provider-patient communication, the professional needs to be well understood by the patient, but also be able to understand subtle parts of a medical history taking dialogue with worried, sick or mentally affected patients. Virtual Patients (VPs) – learning environments that simulate encounters between a patient and a physician – were used to prepare 26 immigrating professionals in Swedish for healthcare practitioners. The professionals were speaking nine different foreign languages and used two different VP systems to train patient communication. Almost all participants welcomed the use of VPs for training communication in healthcare Swedish and 19 of the 26 users indicated that they considered that VPs should be mandatory to use in future courses. Targeted individual training in provider-patient communication with Virtual Patients seems to be of great educational value and well accepted by immigrating healthcare professionals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-48
Author(s):  
Johncy Joseph ◽  
Corinna Sicoutris ◽  
Steven E Raper

Background: Good communication skills enhance the patient experience, clinical outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Objective: A course was developed by an interdisciplinary team (surgeon, nurse practitioner, and nurse MBA) for advanced practice providers (APPs) working for the department of surgery—a mix of practice and hospital-employed professionals—to enhance communications skills in an inpatient setting. Methods: Current concepts on provider–patient communication were discussed. Participants also asked to view and critique a video “provider–patient communication gone wrong” scenario. Lastly, participants were provided with techniques for improving provider–patient communication. The participants assessed the course. Provider communication scores were tracked from quarter 1, Fiscal Year 2014 to quarter 4 Fiscal Year 2017. Results: Of 110 eligible APPs, 95 (86%) attended the course. The anonymous survey response rate was 90% (86/95). Participants expressed satisfaction with the course content confirmed by Likert score weighted averages of >4.6/5 in all 8 domains. Communication scores increased with time. Conclusion: An interdisciplinary course aimed at enhancing provider–patient communication skills was well-received by the APP participants. The course was part of ongoing system-wide efforts to improve patient experiences, satisfaction, and outcomes. Continuing education in communication continues to play a key role in improving clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.


2021 ◽  
pp. 382-389
Author(s):  
Charlotte Lucy Richardson ◽  
Stephen Chapman ◽  
Simon White

Objective: Virtual patients (VPs) are a method of simulating clinical practice however little is known about their use by healthcare professionals. This study explores if, and how, one VP is educationally beneficial for pharmacists and pre-registration trainees to teach non-vitamin K oral anticoagulant (NOAC) patient counselling. Method: The evaluation used a before and after questionnaire measuring self-perceived counselling ability; further questions considered the outcomes of VP use. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics; ethical approval was granted by Keele University. Results: There was an average improvement in the user’s (n=94) self-perceived ability to conduct NOAC counselling (+10.2%). Although, there was variation in educational outcomes with changes in both knowledge and confidence reported. Some reported a decreased ability, but they were still positive towards the VP as it may have had a regulatory effect. Conclusion: Most users perceived multiple benefits of use; more generic outcomes related to counselling skills were also reported.


Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Kurtz

Background:In a formal needs assessment, conducted prior to the Canadian Headache Society's recent national continuing education workshop, participants expressed particular enthusiasm for enhancing their own communication skills or their teaching of those skills.Objectives:Responding to both interests, this paper offers a practical conceptual framework for thinking systematically about how to improve physician-patient communication to a professional level of competence.Methods:The three-part, evidence-based framework first defines communication in medicine in terms of five underlying assumptions about communication and the learning of communication skills. It then discusses three categories of communication skills (content, process, and perceptual skills) and six goals that physicians and patients work to achieve through their communication with each other. The second part of the framework explores “first principles” of effective communication and includes a brief look at the historical context that has significantly influenced our thinking about, and practice of communication in health care. Part three of the framework describes one approach for delineating and organizing the specific skills that research supports for communicating effectively with patients - the Calgary Cambridge Guide.Results:It is clear from the literature that better physician communication skills improve patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes and that good communication skills can be taught and learned.Conclusions:It is important that physicians learn the principles of good physician-patient communication and apply them in clinical practice. Medical education programs at all levels should include teaching of physician-patient communication.


2022 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Carnell ◽  
Anna Miles ◽  
Benjamin Lok

Previous research in educational medical simulation has drawn attention to the interplay between a simulation’s fidelity and its educational effectiveness. As virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used in medical simulations for education purposes, a focus on the relationship between virtual patients’ fidelity and educational effectiveness should also be investigated. In this paper, we contribute to this investigation by evaluating the use of a virtual patient selection interface (in which learners interact with a virtual patient via a set of pre-defined choices) with advanced medical communication skills learners. To this end, we integrated virtual patient interviews into a graduate-level course for speech-language therapists over the course of 2 years. In the first cohort, students interacted with three VPs using only a chat interface. In the second cohort, students used both a chat interface and a selection interface to interact with the VPs. Our results suggest that these advanced learners view the selection interfaces as more appropriate for novice learners and that their communication behavior was not significantly affected by using the selection interface. Based on these results, we suggest that selection interfaces may be more appropriate for novice communication skills learners, but for applications in which selection interfaces are to be used with advanced learners, additional design research may be needed to best target these interfaces to advanced learners.


SIASAT ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Serlange Campbell ◽  
Sharon Campbell-Phillips ◽  
Daneil Phillips

Communication is fundamental and vital to all administrative functions and communication is a means of transmitting information and making oneself understood by another or others, Sanchez & Guo (2005). Good communication skills are very important to ones success as an administrator, Yate (2009). This paper discusses how the lack of communication can affect production within organizations and provides guidelines on how both management and employees can create effectiveness by improving their communication skills. Various methods including surveys, questionnaires and interviews will be used through a descriptive research to generate the information that will guide the research. Person’s communication skills affect both personal and organisational effectiveness, Brun (2010); summers (2010). It seems reasonable to conclude that one of the most inhibiting forces to organisational effectiveness is a lack of effective communication, Lutgen-Sandvik (2010). The purpose of this study is to investigate the lack of communication between management and staff in different organizations. The objective is to identify the causes for miscommunication between management and staff, to investigate the kind of effects that the lack of communication would have on different organizations, to provide recommendations on improving the lack of communication, between management and staff throughout organizations.                                                              


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darija Kuruc Poje ◽  
Domagoj Kifer ◽  
Isabelle Huys ◽  
Joao Miranda ◽  
Helena Jenzer ◽  
...  

Abstract Background It is known that drug shortages represent a major challenge for all stakeholders involved in the process, but there is little evidence regarding insights into patients′ awareness and perspectives. This study aimed to investigate the patients-perceived drug shortages experience and their view on outcomes in different European hospital settings. Furthermore, we wanted to explore information preferences on drug shortages. Methods A retrospective, cross sectional, a mixed method study was conducted in six European hospital settings. One hospital (H) from each of this country agreed to participate: Bosnia and Herzegovina (H-BiH), Croatia (H-CR), Germany (H-GE), Greece (H-GR), Serbia (H-SE) and Poland (H-PO). Recruitment and data collection was conducted over 27 months from November 2017 until January 2020. Overall, we surveyed 607 patients which completed paper-based questionnaire. Questions related to: general information (demographic data), basic knowledge on drug shortages, drug shortages experienced during hospitalization and information preferences on drug shortage. Differences between hospital settings were analyzed using Chi-squared test or Fisher’s exact test. For more complex contingency tables, Monte Carlo simulations (N = 2000) were applied for Fisher’s test. Post-hoc hospital-wise analyses were performed using Fisher’s exact tests. False discovery rate was controlled using the Bonferroni method. Analyses were performed using R: a language and environment for statistical computing (v 3.6.3). Results 6 % of patients reported experiences with drug shortages while hospitalized which led to a deterioration of their health. The majority of affected patients were hospitalized at hematology and/or oncology wards in H-BiH, H-PO and H-GE. H-BiH had the highest number of affected patients (18.1 %, N = 19/105, p < 0.001) while the fewest patients were in H-SE (1 %, N = 1/100, p = 0.001). In addition, 82.5 %, (N = 501/607) of respondents wanted to be informed of alternative treatment options if there was a drug shortage without a generic substitute available. Majority of these patients (66.4 %, N = 386/501) prefer to be informed by a healthcare professional. Conclusions Although drug shortages led to serious medical consequences, our findings show that most of the patients did not perceive shortages as a problem. One possible interpretation is that good hospital management practices by healthcare professionals helped to mitigate the perceived impact of shortages. Our study highlights the importance of a good communication especially between patients and healthcare professionals in whom our patients have the greatest trust.


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