Teaching and Assessment of Medical Students During Complex Multifactorial Team-Based Tasks: The "Virtual on Call"...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Simulation-Based Learning
• Teamwork Assessment

Background:

• Current medical curricula often lack team-based skill assessment.
• Simulation-based learning (SBL) offers a promising avenue for enhancing practical skills.
• Objective structured clinical examination skills (OSCE) primarily assess individual performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a high-fidelity virtual simulation for on-call shift scenarios.
• To assess undergraduate medical students' team-based performance in patient handovers.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual hospital setting for medical training.

Main Methods:

• Developed the "iG4 (integrated generation 4) virtual on-call (iVOC)" simulation.
• 41 medical students were divided into 3 cohorts with mixed backgrounds.
• Assessed team performance using the TEAM™ tool during a 15-minute patient handover task.

Main Results:

• Mean handover performance was 5.44/10, the lowest performance marker.
• Overall global team performance averaged 6.64/10.
• The second rotating team showed improved performance (7.89/10) compared to others.

Conclusions:

• This high-fidelity SBL setting is globally reproducible for assessing multinational teamwork.
• Identified areas for improvement in undergraduate team-based clinical skills.
• Recommends incorporating team performance assessment into medical curricula to enhance patient safety.