The emergence of virtual reality (VR) technology is the breakthrough of medical education reform. It is the focus of clinical educators to apply VR technology to medical education and discuss the application effect. The application of VR in the standardized training of residents (referred to as residential training) is not rare, but the literature on the application of VR in the residential training of general practice has not been reported.

To explore the effectiveness of VR technology in the residential training of general practice, and provide a reference for the promotion and application of VR technology in the residential training of general practice.

From May 16, 2022 to August 16, 2022, a total of 58 general practitioners in the grade of 2020 in the Department of General Practice in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Province were selected as the research objects and divided into the experimental group (n=29) and control group (n=29) by using random number generator. The experimental group adopted the teaching method of combining traditional theoretical training and VR skills training, and the control group adopted the method of combining traditional theoretical training and traditional skills training. The training content included the first aid of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and electric defibrillation, the treatment process of organophosphorus poisoning, and treatment process of independent sudden dyspnea in the hospital. Questionnaires were distributed to investigate the basic information of the subjects and their understanding of VR before the training, theoretical and skill assessments were carried out respectively after training, and the two groups of residents were compared in theoretical assessment results, skill assessment results, self-assessment results of the key points of training skills and satisfaction with teaching methods.

There was no difference in gender, age and years of graduation between the experimental group and control group (P>0.05). After training, the theoretical and skill assessment scores of the experimental group were higher than those of the control group (P<0.05). With an assessment score ≥80 as excellence in assessment, the excellent rate of theoretical assessment in the experimental group was higher than the control group (P<0.05). The self-assessed rate of mastery of the key points of the first aid skills for electric defibrillation and organophosphorus poisoning in the experimental group was higher than the control group (P<0.05). The satisfaction scores of study interest, self-study ability, clinical thinking and judgment ability, clinical comprehensive ability, simulation of clinical environment, improvement of teaching effect, preparation for clinical practice and whether teaching is helpful to them were all higher than those of the control group (P<0.05) .

Compared with the traditional teaching mode, the application of traditional theoretical training combined with VR skills training teaching method is conducive to improving their mastery of professional knowledge, which has popularization value in the teaching of residential training of general practice.