Evaluation of a Virtual Counseling Application for Communication Skills Training in Nursing Education

NCT ID: NCT04214132

Last Updated: 2020-01-02

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

434 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2017-08-01

Study Completion Date

2019-10-31

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies under the National University of Singapore offers a three-years (four years for honors students), full-time Bachelor of Science (Nursing) program that is accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. The course covers core modules such as, anatomy, physiology and physical assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacology and nursing practice, communication and cultural diversity, and includes clinical practicums at tertiary hospitals that range from two weeks to three months.

This project will be carried out with nursing undergraduates of National University of Singapore who had completed the core module NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health Professionals) in their year 1 of nursing courses. The 2-year study will follow these students in year 2 and year 3 consecutively by introducing Virtual Patients (VP) depicting real-life case scenarios at gradual difficulty levels before their end-of-semester clinical posting. Four VP case scenarios were developed for each semester on the following topics: 1) interview a pregnant woman with pain to solicit holistic history taking (year 2 semester 1); 2) history taking from a depressed patient (year 2 semester 2); 3) use of a standardized approach such as Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) to hand off interdisciplinary communications (year 3 semester 1); and 4) showing empathy to the fellow nursing student (year 3 semester 2).

Overall, the aim of this project is to develop and evaluate the use of VPs in better preparing nursing undergraduates in communicating with real-life patients, family members, and other healthcare professionals during their clinical posting. The specific research questions the investigators plan to answer in this project are as follows:

1. What is the effect of using VPs in enhancing nursing undergraduates' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills?
2. Do the students receiving additional training using VPs perform better in their communication skills during the clinical posting compared with students receiving standard training?
3. What are the levels of outcomes of students' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills at pretest (semester 1, year 2 before receiving the VP training), posttest 1 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 1), posttest 2 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 2), posttest 3 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 1), and posttest 4 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 2)?
4. What are the changes in self-efficacy and attitude toward communication skills scores over time (pretest, posttests 1-4)?
5. What are the students' experiences in receiving additional training using VPs before their clinical posting? The aim of this paper is therefore to provide a detailed breakdown on the development process of the Virtual Counseling Application using Artificial Intelligence (VCAAI) for communication skills training in nursing education and to highlight challenges faced and recommended resolutions to inform future research.

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Communication

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Study Purpose

OTHER

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

virtual patients group

Only nursing undergraduates from AY2017/2018 cohort, who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module will receive additional training using Virtual Patients in each semester (2 semesters per year) of year 2 and year 3 before they go for the clinical posting. Students will have unlimited access to the Virtual Patients (available scenarios depend on which semester the student is in) by logging in through the school portal.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence

Intervention Type OTHER

Intervention comprises of four Virtual Patients scenarios that aimed to improve nursing undergraduates communication skills in a clinical setting. These scenarios are based on authentic clinical cases (adapted from the real-life clinical case studies) focusing mainly on the communication aspects. Scenarios included 1) a middle-aged pregnant woman in her third trimester experiencing pain, 2) a middle-aged lorry driver who self-admitted to the hospital due to relapse of depressive symptoms, 3) changing a bloody dressing of a middle-aged male patient who had an operation 3 days ago, and 4) communicating with a fellow stressed student during their final preregistration clinical posting period.

Blended learning group

Nursing undergraduates from AY2016/2017 cohort who who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module that comprised of weekly online e-lectures and face-to-face tutorials.

Group Type NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence

Intervention comprises of four Virtual Patients scenarios that aimed to improve nursing undergraduates communication skills in a clinical setting. These scenarios are based on authentic clinical cases (adapted from the real-life clinical case studies) focusing mainly on the communication aspects. Scenarios included 1) a middle-aged pregnant woman in her third trimester experiencing pain, 2) a middle-aged lorry driver who self-admitted to the hospital due to relapse of depressive symptoms, 3) changing a bloody dressing of a middle-aged male patient who had an operation 3 days ago, and 4) communicating with a fellow stressed student during their final preregistration clinical posting period.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Check the participation requirements, including inclusion and exclusion rules, age limits, and whether healthy volunteers are accepted.

Inclusion Criteria

* Year two nursing undergraduates
* Enrolled for Bachelor of Science (Nursing) course for Academic years 2017/2018 at Alice Lee Center for Nursing Studies, NUS.
* Completed the core module "Effective Communication for Health Professionals" in Year 1
* Able to read and speak English fluently

Exclusion Criteria

* Medical or mental illness that may hinder the use of Virtual Patients
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

Meet the organizations funding or collaborating on the study and learn about their roles.

National University of Singapore

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

Identify the individual or organization who holds primary responsibility for the study information submitted to regulators.

Shefaly Shorey

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Explore where the study is taking place and check the recruitment status at each participating site.

National University of Singapore

Singapore, , Singapore

Site Status

Countries

Review the countries where the study has at least one active or historical site.

Singapore

Other Identifiers

Review additional registry numbers or institutional identifiers associated with this trial.

NUS S-18-074

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

More Related Trials

Additional clinical trials that may be relevant based on similarity analysis.

3D Port-A Catheter Model for New Staff
NCT06416943 NOT_YET_RECRUITING NA