SAFEMED+ Project “Simulation Training in Undergraduate Medical Education to Improve the Safety and Quality of Patient Care”: Dissemination of Experience

On November 16-23, 2023, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University held advanced training course “New approaches in OSCE organization and conduction. Application of computer technologies at OSCE stations”. The purpose of organizing this course was to spread the experience gained by our participants during the implementation of the SAFEMED+ project “Simulation In Undergraduate Medical Education For Improvement Of Safety And Quality Of Patient Care” of the Erasmus+ КА2 CBHE program.

The course was organised by Nadia Pasiaka, leading specialist of TNMU interdepartmental educational and training centre of TNMU, Natalia Haliyash, Associate Professor of the Department of Paediatrics No. 2, Natalia Petrenko, Associate Professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology No. 2, and Natalia Bilkevych, Associate Professor of the Department of Propaedeutics of Internal Medicine and Phthisiology. The course was attended by 32 TNMU teachers.

On the first day, in the offline format, Nadia Pasiaka in her opening speech presented the course participants with the long-term experience of conducting OSCE at TNMU and emphasized the numerous advantages of its organization, which makes our university an indisputable leader in this field.

Then the work continued with the stress test “Simulation of OSCE with the involvement of participants”, during which teachers had the opportunity to take part in a simulated full-format OSCE in various roles – a student, a standardized patient, an examiner or an observer. They were briefed, stations were set up, badges and route sheets were distributed, bells were rung, etc.

An active discussion arose during the debriefing. The teachers drew attention to a number of important topics:

• When and how should students wear gloves when working with a patient? Do students know how to work with their hands? This highlights the need for a consensus approach to the requirements and teaching of infection control issues in various disciplines and departments.
• An end-to-end program is necessary for the formation of students’ communicative competence – after all, we test such skills, but do we teach properly?
• A proposal was received regarding the possibility of expanding the topics of OSCE stations for graduates due to the introduction of scenarios with oncological pathology, which is currently in the second-third place in the structure of morbidity in Ukraine, or infectious diseases.

The online classes were dedicated to the study of the experience of organizing and conducting OSCE in the participating countries of the SAFEMED+ project (Natalia Bilkevych); informing about OSCE with virtual simulation of clinical cases (computer-based-OSCE) (Natalia Haliyash); non-technical skills (soft skills) as relevant skills of the time (Natalia Petrenko); the possibilities of developing communicative competence using simulation training methods (Natalia Bilkevych); peculiarities of training standardized patients (Natalia Petrenko).

One of the live classes was dedicated to another simulation – course participants were offered to pass OSCE with a virtual simulation of cases developed by the organisers.

During the debriefing, the advantages and disadvantages of this OSCE format were discussed. It was agreed that, in the case of distance learning, such an exam helps to check such components of students’ clinical competence as collecting complaints and anamnesis, clinical thinking, the ability to apply a diagnostic algorithm, prescribe treatment, navigate ethical/legal issues, etc. Associate professors Natalia Bilkevych and Natalia Haliyash presented the possibilities of the Moodle platform and different types of questions for use in virtual cases. Natalia Haliyash introduced the CAPSULE and CASUS platforms, which present a variety of virtual patients, and which are available to teachers of our university for free, subject to registration from the university inbox @tdmu.edu.ua.

At the last lesson, homework was discussed – to create a case for OSCE with a virtual simulation of cases. Most of the participants took a responsible approach to the task and presented interesting developments of virtual patients.

We thank all participants for their active and responsible participation in the course. Their implementation and proper training of teachers will make it possible to implement the final stage of the SAFEMED+ project, namely the implementation of pilot OSCE with virtual simulation of cases for 4th-5th-year students of the International Students’ Faculty.

We express our appreciation to the partners of the SAFEMED+ project for their fruitful cooperation, and to the administration of our university for their constant support of our initiatives.

The information was provided by Nadia Pasiaka and Natalia Haliyash.

Photographs by course organisers.