How we "breathed life" into problem-based learning cases using a mobile application

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely adopted in medical education. Learners become bored with paper-based cases as they progress through their studies.

To breathe life (i.e. develop virtual patients) into paper-based PBL cases.

The "patients" in paper-based PBL cases in one Year 2 were transformed into virtual patients by simulated patients role-playing and the videos and associated patient data uploaded to Bond's Virtual Hospital, a mobile Application. In unsupervised "clinical teams", second-year students undertook "ward rounds" twice a week, prompted by a virtual consultant and registered nurse. Immediately following the "ward rounds", they met with a clinician facilitator to discuss their "patients".

Apart from some minor technical issues, the experience was rated positively by students and clinical facilitators. They claimed that it provided students with a sense of what happens in the real world of medicine. The group work skills students had developed during PBL stood them in good stead to self-manage their "clinical teams".

This more authentic PBL experience will be extended to earlier semesters as well as later in the curriculum as the virtual hospital can be used to expose learners to a profile of patients that may not be guaranteed during hospital rounds.