Student views on how role-playing in a virtual hospital is distinctively relevant to medical education

Abstract

Virtual worlds have the potential to enact the experiential learning of professional practices in simulated environments. The Otago Virtual Hospital (OVH) is one such virtual world where medical students role-playing as junior doctors make diagnoses and manage realistic clinical cases. To integrate the use of virtual worlds into existing curriculum, their distinctive relevance needs to be determined. A case study was conducted to find out how role-playing in the OVH is distinctively relevant to medical education. Following a trial involving 11 medical students completing the same scenario, three areas of relevance were identified: ?making the call?; self- organisation; and ?going through the whole process?. These areas can provide guidance to educators and staff developers who plan to recommend and sustain the use of virtual worlds in fields such as medical, legal, and management education.