The effectiveness of using virtual patient educational tools to improve medical students' clinical reasoning skills: a systematic review

• Published in: BMC medical education Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 365
• Main Authors: Plackett, Ruth, Kassianos, Angelos P, Mylan, Sophie, Kambouri, Maria, Raine, Rosalind, Sheringham, Jessica
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 13.05.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Clinical Competence; Clinical decision making; Clinical Reasoning; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer simulation; COVID-19; Curricula; Decision-making; Distance learning; Educational Needs; Educational technology; Equipment and supplies; Evaluation; Health education; Humans; Intervention; Medical education; Medical students; Methods; Online tutorials; Patients; Problem Solving; Reasoning; Reproducibility of Results; Skills; Students, Medical; Systematic review; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology application; Thinking Skills; Virtual patient; United Kingdom; Medical students; Clinical skills; Computer simulation; Computer-assisted instruction; Educational technology; Virtual patient; Clinical reasoning; Medical education; Review; Clinical decision-making

Use of virtual patient educational tools could fill the current gap in the teaching of clinical reasoning skills. However, there is a limited understanding of their effectiveness. The aim of this study was to synthesise the evidence to understand the effectiveness of virtual patient tools aimed at i...