Initial construct validity evidence of a virtual human application for competency assessment in breaking bad news to a cancer patient.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite interest in using virtual humans (VHs) for assessing health care communication, evidence of validity is limited. We evaluated the validity of a VH application, MPathic-VR, for assessing performance-based competence in breaking bad news (BBN) to a VH patient.

Methods

We used a two-group quasi-experimental design, with residents participating in a 3-hour seminar on BBN. Group A (n=15) completed the VH simulation before and after the seminar, and Group B (n=12) completed the VH simulation only after the BBN seminar to avoid the possibility that testing alone affected performance. Pre- and postseminar differences for Group A were analyzed with a paired t-test, and comparisons between Groups A and B were analyzed with an independent t-test.

Res

SUBMITTER: Guetterman TC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5536229 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature