Virtual Patients for Sports Medicine – West Ada School District experience
West Ada School District was one of the schools that saw their hard work rewarded with the Leading Idaho Grant 2022. With that amazing recognition, they were able to start using Body Interact as a learning tool for their classes. The main objective was to have a Virtual Patients platform that could help the student to develop clinical thinking, complement the theoretical lessons and keep the students engaged.
Eric Taylor, Head Athletic Trainer at West Ada School District shared his experience with the audience at the latest NCHSE webinar series.
Using the provided clinical scenarios, students can engage in conversations with virtual patients, receive responses, assess vital signs, conduct a comprehensive head-to-toe examination, determine the most appropriate tests, interventions, or medications, request assistance if necessary, and observe real-time reactions of the virtual patients to their decisions.
Having the assessment feature on this platform is also a key point for Eric allowing him to evaluate his students at any moment through detailed feedback generated after the scenarios.
Those reports can be accessed anytime, anywhere.
Benefits of virtual patients in classes
- Expose students to a great variety of life-like scenarios in a risk-free environment
- Bridge the gap between theory and clinical practice.
- Large number of scenarios continue to increase, with easy integration into the curriculum.
- From 124 scenarios in 2022 to 164 in 2023
- Communication, critical thinking, problem-solving and team-work development
- Personalized feedback at the end of each simulation
- Highly engaging learning methodology for Gen-Z students
- HOSA – State and national support for patient simulations
Not only do the teachers recognize value of Virtual Patients but also the feedback received from students is extremely positive. They have mentioned the following:
- Appreciate the diverse range of scenarios.
- Enjoy the sense of security in practicing within a risk-free environment.
- Find that virtual patient interactions enhance the realism of problem-solving.
- Consider it an enjoyable and engaging method to reinforce learning.
Sports Medicine Clinical Scenarios
Body Interact provides 15+ sports medicine scenarios covering a spectrum of situations, from on-field emergencies to rehabilitation strategies and cardiac arrests during soccer games.
Here are some of the conditions you can work with:
- Ankle Swelling and inflammation
- Rehabilitation process of a knee injury
- Cardiac arrest during soccer game
- Rehabilitation of patellar tendinopathy
- Medial elbow pain
- Lateral Ligament injury on the ankle
- Multidirectional instability of the shoulder
- Iliotibial band syndrome
- Concussion in America Football collision
By Maria Carolina Ferreira – Customer Trainer / Registered Nurse
