The fundamental objective was to create a virtual simulation tool based on artificial intelligence to improve communication and decision-making with patients among healthcare professionals in the surgical field. This tool's overall objective was to improve the quality of care and the perception of healthcare users. It allows for the development of specific training for healthcare professionals, facilitating the continuous evaluation of their scientific-technical, communicative, and interpersonal skills. As specified in the proposal, the objectives were: OE1: To develop a digital tool for undergraduate and postgraduate training that enables the training, development, and improvement of healthcare professionals' scientific-technical, verbal, and non-verbal skills related to communication and healthcare decision-making with patients. OE2: To configure a harmonized set of valid and reliable items to simultaneously evaluate person-centered communication skills and scientific-technical skills related to surgery. OE3: To analyze the functioning of a virtual clinical simulation environment in healthcare education.
Our primary motivation was to provide healthcare higher education institutions with an e-learning tool that would allow for individualized simulations of communication and decision-making with patients. This tool would provide students with instant feedback, enabling them to refine and improve their healthcare communication strategies, particularly in surgical situations, given the patient's sensitivity. The tool is initially designed for healthcare higher education students, but it also has a clear potential for training practicing healthcare professionals, both for refresher and skills development and for those newly entering the field. As an online training platform, it allows participants to increase their practical experience in this area without being limited by the trainer's availability, in addition to all the advantages of this type of training (free access, anytime, location-based, asynchronous, etc.). This need has been identified across all the healthcare higher education institutions with which we maintain contact at the European level and has a significant impact on the quality of patient communication.