International Journal of Healthcare Simulation

Background and aim:

Severe disruptions have plagued Myanmar’s undergraduate and postgraduate medical education – firstly with the Covid-19 pandemic and later with a military coup d’état in February 2021. In the wake of the current humanitarian and political crisis, many medical students partaking in civil disobedience have been driven underground for fear of retribution. Foregoing bedside teaching and crucial clinical learning opportunities in hospitals – for online education through teleconferencing and live broadcast via social media. To scale up these efforts the Global Health Education Group’s (GHEG) novel XR platform was piloted to provide remote clinical experiences streamed to Myanmar students with the help of diaspora doctors and virtual patients in the UK [1].

Methods:

The pilot held over a 4-day period in February comprised 4 Virtual Clinical Experience (VCE) sessions each covering two simulated patient scenarios related to the following disciplines: Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Paediatrics. Each session had an introductory, consultation, and debrief phase that ran for 1.5 – 2 hours altogether. This was held on GHEG’s newly developed Virtual CP platform [2], which enabled the students to view a live stream of the consultation with the patient-actor through the clinician’s smart glasses and provided the opportunity for real-time interaction.

Results:

The sessions were successfully delivered to 400 students from across 5 Myanmar Universities. The student’s satisfaction was assessed using an anonymous feedback form that was disseminated; a total of 38 responses was obtained which was overwhelmingly positive. 76.3% of the respondents rated the session to be ‘helpful’ or ‘extremely helpful’ and 68.4% rated the session to be representative of a real clinical experience. On a scale out of 10, 57.8% of respondents rated the VCE platform a 6 and above on ease of use. Technical difficulties did arise affecting 68.4% of respondents, although free text feedback purported they were promptly addressed in subsequent sessions.

Conclusion:

Synchronous remote learning through virtual clinical experiences can be used to address the dearth of clinical opportunities afforded to medical students in Myanmar.

Ethics statement:

Authors confirm that all relevant ethical standards for research conduct and dissemination have been met. The submitting author confirms that relevant ethical approval was granted, if applicable.