Impact of Clinical Practice Restriction on Medical Students' Perceptions of Simulation Training: A Retrospective...

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic forced medical education to adopt alternative programs focused on infection prevention. Simultaneously, simulation training gained importance as a tool to complement clinical experience. This study aimed to compare medical students' perceptions regarding the effectiveness of simulation training between those who participated during COVID-19-related clinical practice restrictions and those in the post-restriction period. Fifth-year medical students from academic year (AY) 2022 (during restrictions) and AY 2023 (after restrictions) completed a survey before and after simulation training in general internal medicine. The survey assessed students' perceptions of effectiveness in knowledge, skills, motivation, communication, team healthcare, and clinical experience using a 5-point Likert scale. Simulation training significantly enhanced students' perceptions across all survey domains regardless of clinical practice restrictions. The most notable improvement was observed in team healthcare awareness, which increased from 3.9 to 4.8 in both cohorts. In contrast, perceived contribution to clinical experience remained lower than other domains, with only modest increase in both AY 2022 (3.2 → 3.4) and AY 2023 (3.4 → 3.7). This study found that medical students perceived simulation training as effective for enhancing their learning in clinical competencies, but felt its role in replicating real patient experience was limited.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-025-02568-5.