Virtual Reality: A Novel Teaching Tool in Undergraduate Medicine Clinical Skills Training

Objective This study aims to evaluate and assess if virtual reality (VR) is an effective education tool for teaching clinical skills to undergraduate medical students. Methods ‘Meta Quest 2’® VR headsets were utilized across a study population of 8 third-year undergraduate medical students. They were exposed to a wide variety of clinical scenarios developed by Oxford Medical Simulation (OMS). Participants completed an orientation session with the VR headset and then went through a scenario session of the software. Afterwards, they were asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire which featured 20 items asking participants to rank their experience with the software. Results After each participant completed a full virtual scenario, students overall said that they found the scenarios to be an effective training tool and had positive feedback on the utility, usability, and impact of utilizing this VR software. Conclusion These findings suggest that VR can enhance undergraduate medical education and train student doctors to become more effective in clinical scenarios. While VR cannot fully replace face-to-face interactions, it can be used to supplement conventional training methods, encouraging medical students to make mistakes that they cannot afford to make during face-to-face clinical skills training.