Of the 56 eligible residents, twenty-one initiated the VCA. Of the twenty-one, sixteen completed the full VCA pilot. Of the 16, eleven were male (68.8%) and 5 were female (31.2%). All participants were Internal Medicine categorial residents.
Ratings, Learning Points and Exemplar Responses
The characteristics of the analog patient raters are presented in Table 1. More than half were males (n = 129, 57%) and higher educated, holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher (n = 183, 81%). The overall mean rating of residents’ responses to the vignettes from the analog patients was 3.7 (standard deviation 0.2, range 3.3, 4.1). By 5A construct, the means ranged from 3.55 to 3.85 on a scale of 1 to 5 (see Table 2). The learning points and illustrative quotes by vignette (and 5A construct) are also shown in Table 2. Analog patients provided recommendations on how they would like the provider to respond. Some also provided direct language on what the provider should say to someone in that scenario.
Table 1
Analog patient rater characteristics (N = 226).
Variable
|
n
|
%
|
Age
|
|
|
18–24
|
6
|
2.7
|
25–34
|
95
|
42
|
35–44
|
68
|
30.1
|
45–54
|
35
|
15.5
|
55–64
|
14
|
6.2
|
65–74
|
8
|
3.5
|
Language
|
|
|
English
|
224
|
99.1
|
English and another language
|
2
|
0.9
|
Gender
|
|
|
Female
|
97
|
42.9
|
Male
|
129
|
57.1
|
Education
|
|
|
Associate degree
|
13
|
5.8
|
Bachelor’s degree
|
143
|
63.3
|
Graduate degree
|
40
|
17.7
|
Graduated high school or equivalent
|
9
|
4
|
Some college, no degree
|
21
|
9.3
|
Table 2
Overall mean (SD) ratings and sample learning points and illustrative quotes by vignette/5A construct.
Vignette/5A Construct
|
Mean (SD) ratings*
|
Sample learning points and illustrative quotes
|
Ask about her weight history and prior weight loss experience.
|
3.55 (0.94)
|
Ask about the patient’s past experiences with weight loss, including what they tried and what worked
“I would want them to lay out some possible choices and procedures we might be able to take to reduce my weight after discussing what I've already tried.”
|
Advise that weight loss is recommended based on the patient’s personal health information (e.g. BMI & risk factors)
|
3.70 (0.98)
|
Use relevant patient information to show the relationship between weight and current/future health risks.
“The provider should explain how weight (not weight gain) relates to the medical conditions which put me at risk, and it could possibly influence my current and future health/risks.”
|
Assess the patient’s level of motivation and confidence to make lifestyle changes
|
3.85 (0.91)
|
Gain understanding of the patient's past attempts at weight loss.
“I would love it if the provider asked me the steps I have been taking, what I find hard or easy.”
|
Assist the patient in setting goals and specific plans within the framework of providing relevant information regarding the relationship between weight, diet, and physical activity.
|
3.72 (1.02)
|
Listen carefully to patients’ challenges/concerns and provide options to address the challenges that will help them meet their goals.
“I know I'm overweight, so other than stating the obvious things, I would like them to talk to me about things I might not be aware of, like the one who talked about biking and that taking strain off the knees, or the water aerobics classes. Throwing out some of these examples gives me more hope that I can work towards my goals without just saying diet and exercise.”
|
Arrange follow-up as appropriate to support her in her efforts to manage her weight.
|
3.78 (0.93)
|
Show caring, warmth, empathy
“I'd want to hear [the doctor being] empathetic, warm, and taking time to point out it was a journey that they, too, cared about me taking”
|
* Ratings were created by averaging the 6 Likert scale questions. |
Qualitative Feedback from VCA Debriefing
Of the 16 participants completing the VCA, 11 completed debriefing interviews. We identified five themes regarding resident experiences with the VCA and application to practice. We present the themes and illustrative quotes below:
Theme 1: Overall the VCA was easy to use, helpful and more engaging than traditional learning and assessment modes
Participants noted the VCA was more engaging and provided additional ways to learn outside of the usual methods.
“VCA is a very cool app. And it's a nice, interesting way of being more engaging than us reading through PowerPoint slides.”
“And in medical school we have written exams, but there's not many oral exams really, or low pressure things like this was, because I could record again, so it was very low pressure.”
Participants noted the ease of using the app and liked being able to do it at their convenience.
“I thought the app was really easy to use. I honestly woke up, I made breakfast and then I just did it while I was eating breakfast and it was super easy.”
Theme 2: Patient scenarios were similar to those encountered in the clinic, including diversity, health literacy and different stages of change
Participants noted the similarities in the VCA to what they actually see in the clinic.
“I thought it was realistic. Like everything that happened in those case scenarios is something that I've encountered in clinic.”
Participants discussed the physical and psychosocial diversity presented in scenarios, including patient’s readiness to change and motivation levels.
“I think you had a good range of people. I mean, different demographics and also different stages of change and different kind of understanding of what's going on with their health and health literacy as well.”
“…and you had some diverse reactions to things, which I thought was pretty interesting just because it's not all just people who are motivated or positive. There are people who are defensive... So it was a nice spectrum of how people could respond..”
Theme 3: The knowledge, skills, and reminders from the VCA can be transferred to practice
Some residents intended to implement their new knowledge and skills into their own weight management counseling practices with patients.
“I think the fact that you are providing an ideal response, you actually have something that you're using, you're getting the tone of voice, you're getting everything in there and then you can just copy that if you want to and implement that in your own practice.“
“I'll definitely bring it up to my patients more knowing how it should be done because I know it's a very sensitive topic for some people and just having this guideline really helps bring up the topic to patients. Just knowing how people appreciate it being done.”
“I had the opportunity to think about what I wanted to say without the pressure of somebody sitting there in front of me. I think it was helpful in the sense that weight can be a very uncomfortable topic for anybody. So just having the opportunity to think about it before I say something gives me like a little bit of a rubric that I can spring off of next time that it's in-person.”
Theme 4: Feedback reports were helpful, to the point and informative, including the exemplar response of how to best respond to the scenario.
Participants noted that getting feedback on the ideal response and what the patient wanted to hear was very helpful.
“I enjoyed how every patient there was a bullet of exactly what an ideal response would be. I felt like I made it more purposeful because I think that feedback is one of the best ways that we learn in that… having deep feedback as detailed as it was, was important. You can see that bar graph at the top that compared you to your peers so you get a better understanding of how well or how poorly you did not that that was the point of this exercise, but if you just get an idea of how much, or how little you need to refine your skills. I actually really enjoyed the way the format was. They hit the strong points without rambling too much”
“I thought it was helpful at the very end where it was kind of like the highlights of what the patient would have wanted to hear. I think those little nuggets are the most helpful.”
Theme 5: The VCA provides alternative and practice scenarios to real-life patient situations when they are not always accessible
Participants made mention of appreciating the clinical encounters when they were not actually able to be in the clinic or practice with real patients.
“Especially if we're in a situation where now there's like more EA learning and you know, the students are not going to have those patient encounters through OSCEs or however they were used to doing them. I think this is a great way to work around that.”
“With COVID we miss a lot of our clinic time, so I felt like I missed a big chunk of it. And just to have something to refresh me about how things are done in the clinic is really good.”
“...you do get to kind of do a dry run of what you want to say in a whole bunch of different scenarios before you actually speak to a patient…”