Center for Interdisciplinary Clinical Simulation and Practice (CICSP): Standardized Patient

What Does A Standardized Patient Do?

SPs study a case overview and train to the specific responses, behaviors and skills necessary for realistic, standardized portrayals. Training sessions vary per case. Trainings may involve
a video review of previous encounters, and generally involve coaching and/or role-play. Times are somewhat flexible and are scheduled in advance. In many cases the SP (unlike a real patient) is asked to come out of role at the end of the encounter and provide the student with valuable, objective verbal feedback. In testing situations, SPs are trained to complete formal evaluations of each student (including written feedback) based on a specific
set of skills being assessed. These evaluations often make up a large part of the student’s grade for a particular activity.

Background Information

The idea of Standardized Patients began in 1964 when Howard S. Barrows,M.D., introduced the ‘Programmed Patient’ while working at McMaster University in Canada. These ‘patients’ later became known as ‘SimulatedPatients’ and now ‘Standardized Patients’ (SPs). Dr. Barrows defines Standardized Patient as the umbrella term for both a simulated patient (a well person trained to simulate a patient’s illness in a standardized way) and an actual patient (who is trained to present his or her own illness in a standardized way). The SP will not vary from student to student. The SP is a person who has been carefully coached to simulate an actual patient so accurately that the simulation cannot be detected by a skilled clinician.

Why use SP’s for assessing students’ clinical skills?

By using SP clinical encounters, we are able to reliably assess the students’ interviewing, physical examination and communication skills. Once all of the evaluation checklists are scored, we will be able to directly compare each student’s performance to his/her fellow classmates.

What does the future hold?

The future of our Education and Evaluation Center’s Standardized Patient Program holds endless possibilities. We have the best faculty, professionals and students of any school or university of health professionals. And with the assistance of our state-of-the-art facility, we will be able to carry on a grand tradition in the fields of health professionals education.

Also, there is the matter equity in the SP assessment. For instance, all of the senior year nursing students taking an examination in our center will see the same ‘patients’. This is not possible in a real clinical setting. Using standardized patient examinations is also an excellent method with which to evaluate curriculum and promote faculty development.