Effectiveness of Virtual Patient Simulation Training for First-Year Au.D. Students

Clinical audiometry training has traditionally required hands-on experience from real patient interaction to acquire practice and advance clinical skills. This has proven limitations due constraints such as number of patients to practice upon. Otis the Virtual Patient (Otis) Program is a patient simulation program designed to provide audiology students with practice by simulating a variety of hearing impairment cases on a computer interface, thus eliminating the need for a real patient for practice. Students can access the program at any time for unlimited practice, and progress through levels of difficulty as they complete self-tests. The program features an audiometer panel, real-life patient responses, and instant feedback to guide the student during a simulated audiological evaluation. Although well-received, the effectiveness of the program on improving audiology student clinic skills has not been measured and is therefore not well understood