Assessment of the effectiveness of mastering general medical skills using virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality technologies – RUMEDIUS in the educational process of medical institute students at the peoples’ friendship university of Russia.

The integration of practice-oriented learning elements into the educational programs for training healthcare specialists is an important and relevant task to ensure the competitiveness of graduates. The use of virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality technologies in the educational process allows for the simulation of a comfortable environment for learning practical skills. RUMEDIUS is a digital medical education system designed for practicing practical skills, diagnosis and treatment, as well as for developing communication and clinical reasoning. Purpose: to assess the effectiveness of mastering the algorithm of certain general medical skills by first-year students of the Medical Institute majoring in «General Medicine» on the results of the final test – demonstration of manual skills in accordance with the checklist algorithm. Materials and methods. The study involved 263 first-year students, who were divided into two groups based on the learning method: one group used the RUMEDIUS platform, while the other used traditional simulation equipment. They demonstrated the performance of skill algorithms according to checklist items. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using Statistiсa for Windows 10. Results. The analysis of the results demonstrates the advantages of the RUMEDIUS platform for practicing the sequence of performing all items on the checklist. This is most likely due to its multimodal nature, which allows the use of the system’s educational materials and virtual cases on mobile and stationary devices. However, for skills that were practiced through the direct use of simulation equipment in simulation classes, the students of the second group demonstrated significantly better results on the relevant items. Findings. The use of virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality technologies in the educational process, specifically the RUMEDIUS digital medical educational system, contributes to improving the quality of manual skill proficiency when skillfully combined with traditional teaching methods: namely, the presence of a briefing and practical skill training on a manikin using the necessary simulation equipment.