During their clinical clerkships (CCs) in surgery, medical students are generally introduced to such areas as surgical indications, surgical techniques, and perioperative management through rounds and practical skills training on wards and in operating rooms. Given the technological advances made in virtual reality (VR) over recent years and its increasing use in education and corporate training, we decided to try using VR for the benefit of students on surgical CCs. To this end, we developed what we termed a "VR surgery tour" in the field of gastrointestinal surgery, which involved students using VR goggles to view edited 3D images. We then asked 26 fifth- and sixth-year medical students at Nippon Medical School assigned to CCs in gastrointestinal surgery between November 2020 and September 2021 to evaluate the VR surgery tour via a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire included questions using a five-point Likert scale and space for free comments. Our results showed that all respondents felt satisfied with the VR surgery tour, with 96% of them indicating it was a viable alternative to clinical training; moreover, about 90% of the students found it useful as a teaching aid for pre-learning and requested that VR teaching materials be made available in other fields as well. We concluded that our VR surgery tour is a valuable supplement to practical training in gastrointestinal surgery and that it increases medical students' motivation to learn. We believe VR is an effective teaching aid and that there will be increasing demand for its use in various education and training programs.
