SynthesisAdvances in health sciences education : theory and practice2024
Virtual patients in undergraduate psychiatry education: a systematic review and synthesis.
Synthesis in Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Teaching clinical communication skills through virtual patient-based learning: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.BMC medical education · 2026Pooled it
- The effectiveness of virtual reality training on knowledge, skills and attitudes of health care professionals and students in assessing and treating mental health disorders: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of AI-enabled virtual patient simulation on training outcomes and insecurities in psychotherapy education.BMC medical education · 2026Trial
- Development and preliminary evaluation of a virtual standardized patient system for psychiatric interview training.BMC psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Artificial Intelligence in Psychiatric Graduate Medical Education.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Virtual vs. standardized patients - a preliminary comparison of advantages and disadvantages of a VR and a conventional learning unit for medical students in child and adolescent psychiatry.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Social inclusion of people with severe mental illness: a review of current practices, evidence and unmet needs, and future directions.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2026Article
- Virtual patient simulation in an interactive educational module on intimate partner violence: nursing students' experiences-a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- "It kinda helped us to be there": students' perspectives on the use of virtual patient software in psychiatry posting.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Virtual patients are increasingly used in undergraduate psychiatry education. This article reports on a systematic review aimed at providing an overview of different approaches in this context, describing their effectiveness, and thematically comparing learning outcomes across different undergraduate programs. The authors searched PubMed, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Scopus databases for articles published between 2000 and January 2021. Quantitative and qualitative studies that reported on outcomes related to learners' knowledge, skills, and attitudes following an intervention with virtual patients in undergraduate psychiatry education were reviewed. Outcomes were thematically compared, and a narrative synthesis of the different outcomes and effectiveness was provided. Of 7856 records identified, 240 articles were retrieved for full-text review and 46 articles met all inclusion criteria. There were four broad types of virtual patient interventions: case-based presentation (n = 17), interactive virtual patient scenarios (n = 14), standardized virtual patients (n = 10), and virtual patient videogames (n = 5). The thematic analysis revealed that virtual patients in psychiatry education have been used for learners to construe knowledge about symptomatology and psychopathology, develop interpersonal and clinical communicative skills, and to increase self-efficacy and decrease stigmatizing attitudes towards psychiatric patients. In comparison with no intervention, traditional teaching, and text-based interventions, virtual patients were associated with higher learning outcomes. However, the results did not indicate any superiority of virtual patients over non-technological simulation. Virtual patients in psychiatry education offer opportunities for students from different health disciplines to build knowledge, practice skills, and improve their attitudes towards individuals with mental illness. The article discusses methodological shortcomings in the reviewed literature. Future interventions should consider the mediating effects of the quality of the learning environment, psychological safety, and level of authenticity of the simulation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
37294380What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.