CommunicationNCT04214132
Evaluation of a Virtual Counseling Application for Communication Skills Training in Nursing Education
A study testing Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence in people with Communication, run by National University of Singapore at 1 site in Singapore.
Trial summary
The Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies under the National University of Singapore offers a three-years (four years for honors students), full-time Bachelor of Science (Nursing) program that is accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Communication
- What is being tested?
- Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 434 participants
- Where
- 1 siteSingapore
- Study dates
- 1 Aug 2017to 31 Oct 2019
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Year two nursing undergraduates
- Enrolled for Bachelor of Science (Nursing) course for Academic years 2017/2018 at Alice Lee Center for Nursing Studies, NUS.
- Completed the core module "Effective Communication for Health Professionals" in Year 1
- Able to read and speak English fluently
Who cannot join
- Medical or mental illness that may hinder the use of Virtual Patients
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
The Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies under the National University of Singapore offers a three-years (four years for honors students), full-time Bachelor of Science (Nursing) program that is accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. The course covers core modules such as, anatomy, physiology and physical assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacology and nursing practice, communication and cultural diversity, and includes clinical practicums at tertiary hospitals that range from two weeks to three months.
This project will be carried out with nursing undergraduates of National University of Singapore who had completed the core module NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health Professionals) in their year 1 of nursing courses. The 2-year study will follow these students in year 2 and year 3 consecutively by introducing Virtual Patients (VP) depicting real-life case scenarios at gradual difficulty levels before their end-of-semester clinical posting. Four VP case scenarios were developed for each semester on the following topics: 1) interview a pregnant woman with pain to solicit holistic history taking (year 2 semester 1); 2) history taking from a depressed patient (year 2 semester 2); 3) use of a standardized approach such as Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) to hand off interdisciplinary communications (year 3 semester 1); and 4) showing empathy to the fellow nursing student (year 3 semester 2).
Read more
Overall, the aim of this project is to develop and evaluate the use of VPs in better preparing nursing undergraduates in communicating with real-life patients, family members, and other healthcare professionals during their clinical posting. The specific research questions the investigators plan to answer in this project are as follows:
- What is the effect of using VPs in enhancing nursing undergraduates' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills?
- Do the students receiving additional training using VPs perform better in their communication skills during the clinical posting compared with students receiving standard training?
- What are the levels of outcomes of students' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills at pretest (semester 1, year 2 before receiving the VP training), posttest 1 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 1), posttest 2 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 2), posttest 3 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 1), and posttest 4 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 2)?
- What are the changes in self-efficacy and attitude toward communication skills scores over time (pretest, posttests 1-4)?
- What are the students' experiences in receiving additional training using VPs before their clinical posting? The aim of this paper is therefore to provide a detailed breakdown on the development process of the Virtual Counseling Application using Artificial Intelligence (VCAAI) for communication skills training in nursing education and to highlight challenges faced and recommended resolutions to inform future research.
- Conditions
- Communication
- Being tested
- Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence
- Keywords
- Virtual reality, Learning, Technology, Patients
- Medical subject headings
- Communication
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial IntelligenceOther
Intervention comprises of four Virtual Patients scenarios that aimed to improve nursing undergraduates communication skills in a clinical setting. These scenarios are based on authentic clinical cases (adapted from the real-life clinical case studies) focusing mainly on the communication aspects. Scenarios included 1) a middle-aged pregnant woman in her third trimester experiencing pain, 2) a middle-aged lorry driver who self-admitted to the hospital due to relapse of depressive symptoms, 3) changing a bloody dressing of a middle-aged male patient who had an operation 3 days ago, and 4) communicating with a fellow stressed student during their final preregistration clinical posting period.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| virtual patients group | Experimental | Only nursing undergraduates from AY2017/2018 cohort, who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module will receive additional training using Virtual Patients in each semester (2 semesters per year) of year 2 and year 3 before they go for the clinical posting. Students will have unlimited access to the Virtual Patients (available scenarios depend on which semester the student is in) by logging in through the school portal. Receives: Other: Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence |
| Blended learning group | No intervention | Nursing undergraduates from AY2016/2017 cohort who who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module that comprised of weekly online e-lectures and face-to-face tutorials. |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 4 months
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 12 months
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 16 months
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 24 months
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 4 months
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 12 months
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 16 months
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Measured: at 24 months
Secondary outcomes (4)
clinical communication skills mean scores
Clinical assessment scores by clinical instructors obtained through the online clinical management system. Performance scores will be compared with the previous cohort that did not have virtual patient training.
The Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) assessment scale comprises of 7-items, each with a score of 1 to 5, and a total score of 35. The higher the score the better the communication performance.
Measured: 4 months (after completion of Year 2 semester 1 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills mean scores
Clinical assessment scores by clinical instructors obtained through the online clinical management system. Performance scores will be compared with the previous cohort that did not have virtual patient training.
The Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) assessment scale comprises of 7-items, each with a score of 1 to 5, and a total score of 35. The higher the score the better the communication performance.
Measured: 12 months (after completion of Year 2 semester 2 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills scores
Clinical assessment scores by clinical instructors obtained through the online clinical management system. Performance scores will be compared with the previous cohort that did not have virtual patient training.
The Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) assessment scale comprises of 7-items, each with a score of 1 to 5, and a total score of 35. The higher the score the better the communication performance.
Measured: 16 months (after completion of Year 3 semester 1 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills scores
Clinical assessment scores by clinical instructors obtained through the online clinical management system. Performance scores will be compared with the previous cohort that did not have virtual patient training.
The Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) assessment scale comprises of 7-items, each with a score of 1 to 5, and a total score of 35. The higher the score the better the communication performance.
Measured: 24 months (after completion of Year 3 semester 2 clinical posting)
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted2 Jan 2020
- Study start1 Aug 2017
- Primary completion31 Oct 2019
- Study completion31 Oct 2019
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for CommunicationStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by National University of SingaporeThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 434 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- National University of Singapore
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Shefaly Shorey, National University of Singapore
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04214132
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- NUS S-18-074
- Status last verified
- Dec 2019
- First submitted
- 22 Dec 2019
- Last updated
- 2 Jan 2020
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 2 Jan 2020. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Evaluation of a Virtual Counseling Application for Communication Skills Training in Nursing Education
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04214132
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- NUS S-18-074
- Conditions
- Communication
- Keywords
- Virtual reality, Learning, Technology, Patients
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 434 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- National University of SingaporeUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 1 Aug 2017 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Oct 2019 (actual)
- Study completion
- 31 Oct 2019 (actual)
- First posted
- 2 Jan 2020 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies under the National University of Singapore offers a three-years (four years for honors students), full-time Bachelor of Science (Nursing) program that is accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. The course covers core modules such as, anatomy, physiology and physical assessment, pathophysiology, pharmacology and nursing practice, communication and cultural diversity, and includes clinical practicums at tertiary hospitals that range from two weeks to three months.
This project will be carried out with nursing undergraduates of National University of Singapore who had completed the core module NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health Professionals) in their year 1 of nursing courses. The 2-year study will follow these students in year 2 and year 3 consecutively by introducing Virtual Patients (VP) depicting real-life case scenarios at gradual difficulty levels before their end-of-semester clinical posting. Four VP case scenarios were developed for each semester on the following topics: 1) interview a pregnant woman with pain to solicit holistic history taking (year 2 semester 1); 2) history taking from a depressed patient (year 2 semester 2); 3) use of a standardized approach such as Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation (SBAR) to hand off interdisciplinary communications (year 3 semester 1); and 4) showing empathy to the fellow nursing student (year 3 semester 2).
Overall, the aim of this project is to develop and evaluate the use of VPs in better preparing nursing undergraduates in communicating with real-life patients, family members, and other healthcare professionals during their clinical posting. The specific research questions the investigators plan to answer in this project are as follows:
- What is the effect of using VPs in enhancing nursing undergraduates' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills?
- Do the students receiving additional training using VPs perform better in their communication skills during the clinical posting compared with students receiving standard training?
- What are the levels of outcomes of students' self-efficacy and attitude toward learning communication skills at pretest (semester 1, year 2 before receiving the VP training), posttest 1 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 1), posttest 2 (last day of clinical posting year 2 semester 2), posttest 3 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 1), and posttest 4 (last day of clinical posting year 3 semester 2)?
- What are the changes in self-efficacy and attitude toward communication skills scores over time (pretest, posttests 1-4)?
- What are the students' experiences in receiving additional training using VPs before their clinical posting? The aim of this paper is therefore to provide a detailed breakdown on the development process of the Virtual Counseling Application using Artificial Intelligence (VCAAI) for communication skills training in nursing education and to highlight challenges faced and recommended resolutions to inform future research.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Other
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| virtual patients group | Experimental | Other: Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial IntelligenceOnly nursing undergraduates from AY2017/2018 cohort, who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module will receive additional training using Virtual Patients in each semester (2 semesters per year) of year 2 and year 3 before they go for the clinical posting. Students will have unlimited access to the Virtual Patients (available scenarios depend on which semester the student is in) by logging in through the school portal. |
| Blended learning group | No intervention | –Nursing undergraduates from AY2016/2017 cohort who who have completed the redesigned NUR1110 (Effective Communication for Health-Professionals) core module that comprised of weekly online e-lectures and face-to-face tutorials. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Year two nursing undergraduates
- Enrolled for Bachelor of Science (Nursing) course for Academic years 2017/2018 at Alice Lee Center for Nursing Studies, NUS.
- Completed the core module "Effective Communication for Health Professionals" in Year 1
- Able to read and speak English fluently
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Medical or mental illness that may hinder the use of Virtual Patients
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial IntelligenceIntervention comprises of four Virtual Patients scenarios that aimed to improve nursing undergraduates communication skills in a clinical setting. These scenarios are based on authentic clinical cases (adapted from the real-life clinical case studies) focusing mainly on the communication aspects. Scenarios included 1) a middle-aged pregnant woman in her third trimester experiencing pain, 2) a middle-aged lorry driver who self-admitted to the hospital due to relapse of depressive symptoms, 3) changing a bloody dressing of a middle-aged male patient who had an operation 3 days ago, and 4) communicating with a fellow stressed student during their final preregistration clinical posting period. | Other | virtual patients group |
Primary outcome
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Time frame: at 4 months
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Time frame: at 12 months
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Time frame: at 16 months
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills
Time frame: at 24 months
Measured using a self-report, 26-items Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) that uses a 5-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree), and has a total score of 130. A higher score indicate more positive attitude towards learning communication skills. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Time frame: at 4 months
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Time frame: at 12 months
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Time frame: at 16 months
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
Mean score of students' perceived self-efficacy
Time frame: at 24 months
Communication skills sub-scale of the Nursing students self-efficacy scale. 8-items using a 5-point likert scale (0=not at all confident, 5= completely confident) with a total score of 40. A higher score indicates a higher perceived communication self-efficacy. Within cohort comparison.
4 secondary outcomes
clinical communication skills mean scores
Time frame: 4 months (after completion of Year 2 semester 1 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills mean scores
Time frame: 12 months (after completion of Year 2 semester 2 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills scores
Time frame: 16 months (after completion of Year 3 semester 1 clinical posting)
clinical communication skills scores
Time frame: 24 months (after completion of Year 3 semester 2 clinical posting)
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 2 Jan 2020.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
The record lists no contact. Use the official record to reach the sponsor.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Virtual Counselling Application using Artificial Intelligence in people with Communication, run by National University of Singapore at 1 site in Singapore.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 2 Jan 2020. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Singapore. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Mean score of students' attitude towards learning communication skills (time frame: at 4 months). The study lists 8 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 2 Jan 2020.