Author:
Zou Liping,Su Juan,Li Jiao,Wang Jing,Kang Jian,Yin Anning,Ren Haixia,Jiang Xiaoda,Ding Yijuan,An Ping
Abstract
Abstract
Background
In all international medical student (IMS) programs in China, language barriers between IMSs and Chinese patients greatly reduced the learning in clinical practice and brought great challenges to IMSs in their transition from preclinical to clinical practice. This study aimed to investigate the role of bilingual simulated patients (B-SPs) in IMSs learning of medical history collection in China.
Methods
48 IMSs of grade 4 between October 2020 to Jan 2021 were enrolled in this study. During the training of medical history collection, students were randomly arranged into two groups trained with either B-SPs (B-SP group) or English-speaking SP (E-SP group). All SPs in Objective Structured Clinical Exam station (OSCE) were trained in the Affiliated Hospital of Wuhan University. Clinical skills in medical history collection were assessed by instructors during pre-clinical, post-clinical OSCE and clinical rotations.
Results
The scores of IMSs in each group were analyzed in terms of medical history collection including the ability to effectively consult for information and key communication skills related to patient care. Our results indicated that IMS in B-SP group obtained similar scores in preclinical training for history collection (67.3 ± 8.46 vs 67.69 ± 8.86, P < 0.05) compared to E-SP group, while obtaining significantly higher score improvements between pre- and post-OSCE (17.22 (95% CI 12.74 to 21.70) vs 10.84 (95% CI 3.53 to 18.15), P = 0.0007).
Conclusion
B-SPs are more conducive to doctor-patient communication and actually improve IMSs learning in medical history collection in China.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Emergency Scientific Research Project of Wuhan Municipal Health Commission
Teaching Reform Research Project of Medical School of Wuhan Univeristy
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Education,General Medicine