Qualitative evaluation of how a virtual dementia experience impacts medical and pharmacy students’ self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia

Abstract

Objectives It is important for healthcare professional students to understand the experience of people with dementia, their family, and their carers. Despite person-centred educational policies, current curriculums may not adequately prepare students to meet the needs of people with dementia. This study qualitatively evaluated the impact of a virtual dementia experience on medical and pharmacy students' self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia. Methods Ten focus groups were conducted with 29 medical and 24 pharmacy students in September and October 2016. All students had undertaken a multisensory virtual dementia experience designed to simulate the cognitive and perceptual difficulties faced by people with dementia. Focus groups were used to evaluate the virtual dementia experience in terms of perceived usefulness, suggestions for improvement, and ability to inform students' understanding of dementia-friendly environments. Focus groups were audio-recorded and analysed via a thematic approach. Results The virtual dementia experience was described as useful and impactful, and students suggested how it could be more tailored towards their learning needs, such as via incorporating hospital, medical, and pharmacy-specific scenarios and opportunities for role play. Additionally, students explained how dementia-friendly communication techniques could be used in their future practice and provided strategies to optimise dementia-friendly characteristics of current work environments. Conclusion A virtual dementia experience improved student self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia.

Use of virtual and augmented reality-based interventions in health education to improve dementia knowledge and attitudes: an integrative review

“… 17 18 20 34 36 37 39 40 Likewise to knowledge, no group difference on attitudes was found in studies with a two-group comparison. 18 37 40 Qualitative data indicated that participants did perceive an overall improvement in their knowledge and attitudes towards people living with dementia, 30 as well as knowledge and confidence in dementia care following their intervention experience. 39 …”

Stigmatic beliefs towards persons with dementia: comparing Israeli and Greek college students

“…First, students, and especially those learning in the healthcare disciplines, will become the future professionals providing care to persons with dementia and their family members. Accordingly, a myriad of studies assessed knowledge and attitudes towards AD among nursing students (Eccleston et al, 2015;Kimzey et al, 2016;Mitchell et al, 2017;Scerri and Scerri, 2013;Shin et al, 2015), dental hygiene students (Isobe et al, 2018), and medical and pharmacy students (Gilmartin-Thomas et al, 2018). Second, as the number of persons with AD continues to rise (Prince et al, 2016), increasing numbers of young people will be interacting with these older adults as grandchildren and will most likely become family caregivers of persons with the disease (Celdran et al, 2014).…”

Overview of implementation and learning outcomes of simulation in pharmacy education

“…VR has been used to visualize three‐dimensional (3D) representations of human anatomy and as an application for distance team‐based learning 20,132 . AR and MR simulations have been used to provide 3D models of drug‐receptor interactions and biomolecular structure, additional learning resources for medication information and pharmacogenomics, vaccination training, and immersion in patient experiences of dementia 133–139 …”

“…129 Studies of AR and MR simulations have shown improvement in global learning objectives and qualitative positive student feedback on learning. 133,136,138,139 However, other studies have only described student perceptions of the activities. 134,135,137 Literature describing or evaluating the use of XR simulations in educating pharmacy residents are lacking.…”