Feasibility of a Cinematic-Virtual Reality Training Program for Health Professional Students: A Single-Arm Pre-Post Study

Background: Cinematic-virtual reality (cine-VR) has demonstrated improvements in cultural self-efficacy, diabetes attitudes, and empathy among healthcare providers, but its impact on health professional students is unknown. The purpose of the single-arm pre-post study was to examine the feasibility of this cine-VR diabetes training program as well as to assess changes in cultural self-efficacy, diabetes attitudes, and empathy among health professional students. Method: Participants viewed 12 cine-VR 12 simulations about a 72-year-old patient with type 2 diabetes. Pre-training and post-training, they completed the Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool, Diabetes Attitude Scale-3, and Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Results: All 92 participants completed the full training. No participants reported technological difficulties or adverse events. For the assessment, 66 participants completed the pre-post measures for a response rate of 71.7% (mean age = 21.1 ± 1.9 years, 82.6% [n = 57] women; 84.1% [n = 58] white). We observed positive improvements in all three cultural self-efficacy subscales: “Cognitive” ( t value = −4.705, P < .001), “Practical” (mean change = −.99, t value = −4.240, P < .001), and “Affective” ( t value = −2.763, P = .008). Similarly, we observed positive improvements in four of the five diabetes attitude subscales: “Need for special training” ( Z = −4.281, P < .001), “Seriousness of type 2 diabetes” ( Z = −3.951, P < .001), “Value of tight glucose control” ( Z = −1.676, P = .094), “Psychosocial impact of diabetes” ( Z = −5.892, P < .001), and “Attitude toward patient autonomy” ( Z = −2.889, P = .005). Finally, we observed a positive improvement in empathy ( t value = −5.151, P < .001). Conclusions: Findings suggest that the cine-VR diabetes training program has the potential to improve cultural self-efficacy, diabetes attitudes, and empathy among health professional students. A randomized controlled trial is needed to confirm its effectiveness.