Pedagogical efficiency of virtual reality simulators for teaching medical students auscultation skills

Virtual reality (VR) training is used in various areas of medical education.Auscultation training involves mastering theoretical material and working at the patient’s bedside. It is optimal when a student comes to a patient with minimal sound recognition skills. The aim of the project is to compare the effectiveness of lung and heart auscultation training using traditional teaching methods and virtual reality technologies. Materials and Methods. Cardiac and pulmonary auscultation training was conducted using the Oculus Quest 2 headset with virtual stethoscope software. The study involved 77 third-year students. The students were divided into 2 groups: those trained in virtual reality (VR, n = 28) and those trained without the use of virtual technologies (CS, n = 49). Results and discussion. Students trained in virtual reality recognized sounds better immediately after completing the training than students trained using conventional technologies (54.5 versus 38.3 %). Wet rales were recognized significantly worse in the VR group. Recognition of sounds during cardiac auscultation in the VR protocol group was slightly better compared to the SP protocol group (44.5 % versus 36.8 %). Knowledge retention was monitored after 3 months: long-term results were better in the VR group. Conclusion. We consider this project as a pilot one, which will allow us to conduct a large, well-organized clinical and pedagogical study in the future.