EFFECTIVENESS OF VIRTUAL SIMULATION IN COMPARISON WITH PHYSICAL SIMULATION ON INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION AMONG HEALTHCARE STUDENTS: A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

Abstract

Background: Interprofessional collaboration is critical to ensure high quality patient care. However, it can be hindered by poor nurse-physician attitudes, socialisation and stereotypes. With rapid advancements in education technology, virtual simulation has the potential to create similar opportunity to achieve interprofessional competencies to improve nurse-physician collaborations. Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual simulation in comparison to physical simulation in improving: (1) Interprofessional attitudes, (2) Interprofessional socialisation, and (3) Stereotype among medical and nursing students. Methods: A randomised controlled trial was conducted with 120 medical and nursing undergraduates. The students were randomly allocated into 15 virtual and 15 physical simulation groups, with 2 medicine and 2 nursing students in each group. Following pre-questionnaires, virtual group experienced virtual ward-based simulation and physical group experienced a simulated patient (SP) simulation. Afterwards, both groups completed the post-test questionnaires. Follow-up questionnaires were conducted one month later. Data analysis was conducted using paired t-test, independent t-test and repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Both simulation groups demonstrated significant improvements in post-test attitudes, socialisation and stereotype scores. No significant differences were observed between the virtual and physical simulation groups. Conclusion: Virtual simulation can be as effective as physical simulation in fostering interprofessional collaborations among healthcare students. As both simulations displayed improvements in their interprofessional competencies, virtual simulations can be a potential tool to aid in the current limitations of physical simulations. Implications: Quality patient care requires interprofessional collaboration between nurses and physicians. However, such interactions for learning between medicine and nursing students are limited due to the differences in curriculums. Given the flexibility and convenience of virtual simulation, it can be a promising approach to complement existing IPE programs and improve nurse-physician collaboration.