Abstract:

Communication workshops in professional skills teaching programs are designed to support the development of core clinical communication skills (CCS) in veterinary science students and the merit of these teaching and learning experiences is well established. At The University of Sydney, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students in Years 1 and 2, traditionally participate in a series of face-to-face small-group (4-6 students) workshops, where simulated veterinary consultations are conducted using authentic case-based scenarios. Workshops are facilitated by staff with recent or current clinical experience and this is supported by underpinning lectures and tutorials in clinical communication.

Workshops culminate in an assessment session where the ‘client’ is played by a professional actor. In Semester 1, 2020 all face-to-face teaching in the Sydney School of Veterinary Science (SSVS) was suspended on 17th March, in response to the need for social distancing due to COVID19. An online structure for delivering and assessing clinical communication was rapidly deployed. The shift to online teaching and learning required logistical changes to the structure of communication workshops and this was done in ways that aligned to existing intended learning outcomes.

The goal of this research was to evaluate teaching and learning of clinical communication skills to veterinary science students in an online environment. An online anonymous questionnaire was administered to all DVM1 students (n=119), and facilitators / actors (n=14) who participated in online CCS workshops conducted during Semester 1, 2020. Questionnaires were modelled on those used to explore descriptive statistics of a contextualised simulation in a small-group role play activity and included response options on a five-point likert scale from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’ The four areas evaluated included 1. value of the learning experience, 2. level of confidence, 3. perception of their ability, and 4. emotional response. Open-text response boxes enabled additional comments for each area evaluated. Online versus face-to-face comparative data was sought from facilitators and actors but not from students as they have not experienced both formats.

Results indicated that online CCS were perceived as a highly valuable learning experience for CCS development by facilitators (n=10) and students (n=20) with both groups recognising that further training and underpinning knowledge was required to prepare for common veterinary practice scenarios. The workshops were perceived to encourage active participation and to mostly increase confidence and ability with higher levels of agreement in student responses compared to facilitators/actors. A level of stress was perceived by both groups to exist but no more than would be expected for any teaching and learning activity. When comparing online CCS to face-to-face, facilitators’ responses varied with most neither agreeing or disagreeing that online was more effective in the four areas evaluated. Cited benefits of online CCS included more focused attention possible, less distractions, greater preparation; cited disadvantages of online were aspects of clinical communication, particularly with respect to body language, were lost and, the perceived risk that some students could hide more and engage less. Online CCS workshops are an effective complement to clinical training with findings generalizable for training in teaching hospitals.

Keywords:

Clinical, communication, online, veterinary, education.