Virtual Patient Simulation Training in Graduate Dysphagia Management Education—A Research-Led Enhancement Targeting Development of Clinical Interviewing and Clinical Reasoning Skills

Access to patients for clinical education is a challenge for educators and students across all health care professions. Led by colleagues in medical and nursing education, health care educators have increasingly embraced new teaching technologies such as virtual patient (VP) simulation training to support certain aspects of clinical education. This paper presents an account of the systematic, multi-year, research-led incorporation of computer generated virtual humans (i.e., embodied conversational agents) in a dysphagia management course targeting development of clinical interviewing and clinical reasoning skills in graduate speech-language pathology students.