Interested in being a standardized patient? Here’s what you need to know
Interested in being a standardized patient? Here’s what you need to know.
Working with standardized patients (SP) has significantly helped medical students like Taylor Wight. Instead of reading about what it’s like working in a hospital, she’s able to get real-world experience from someone portraying a patient.
She’s been able to receive both valuable and essential experience during her encounters with SPs.
“I have gained and worked many of the soft and technical skills that are important for successfully treating patients through SP encounters,” Wight says.
An SP is trained, coached and pretends to be a patient, family member or other person in health care education. These individuals help students learn what it takes to care for a real patient in a natural environment without the potential risks associated with using real patients.
Miscilda Vital, MD, program director of the standardized patient and simulation programs at UIC Rockford, says SPs help students develop essential skills like learning patient history, performing appropriate physical examinations, communicating with empathy, delivering difficult news and building trust with patients.
“Unlike actors performing for entertainment, standardized patients are carefully prepared to present the same case to every learner, allowing students to practice their clinical and communication skills in a realistic, safe and supportive environment,” she says. “SPs play a vital role in health care education.”
Simulation is an important part of a medical student’s health care education, and the role of an SP is essential.
“Being able to successfully collect patient information and perform correct maneuvers in a way that is patient-centered and makes them feel safe and heard is essential,” Wright says. “SP encounters allow those skills to be developed early on and practiced and are an extremely valuable part of our medical education.”
At UIC Rockford, SPs participate in both the teaching and evaluation of medical students, while providing them with an opportunity to develop, practice and improve their craft.
“I love working with the students watching them become doctors,” says Laurene Logsdon, who’s been an SP for about 12 years. “The best part is seeing the first-year medical students evolve from their first encounter, which is really special.”
While the focus of being an SP is educational rather than theatrical, consistency and communication are much more important than dramatic performance. SPs are given a script to memorize before each encounter. SPs must also memorize the specifics of each case, and at times, be able to improvise.
“We’re sent a case and given a few days to familiarize ourselves,” Logsdon says. “We meet as a group to go over the case before reading it on our own. On the day of the encounter, we make sure all the details are down, and we’re ready to go.”
SPs are asked to portray patient cases or participate in simulated medical or health care encounters. SPs can be asked to participate in several scenarios, including a nervous diabetic patient looking for answers or a child of a parent who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Some of the scripts can be sad and personal, like portraying the voice of a dying child.
SP sessions range from a couple hours to a full day, depending on the need and activity. Encounters involve working with a handful of students, and of course, all SPs are expected to maintain confidentially about simulation content and learner performance.
“Beyond helping students master technical skills, SPs help showcase one of the most important aspects of health care: seeing the person behind the diagnosis,” Vital says. “This makes standardized patient programs an invaluable part of preparing compassionate, competent and patient-centered health care providers.”
After each encounter, SPs are also asked to provide useful feedback from the patient’s perspective as part of an evaluation process. This is easy for Logsdon, who calls herself a professional patient. She’s been in several exam rooms for various concerns and ailments, like depression, high blood pressure and arthritis.
“I think the students appreciate the feedback,” Logsdon says. “I usually ask the students what they want feedback on, and they’ll ask really good questions.”
Wright says SPs are vital for students, so they can hone the same skills that will be used in the medical field.
“Having additional SPs is important to continue to practice those exam and interview skills in a controlled environment,” Wight says. “The more opportunities students have to stretch their patient interview and exam muscles now means stronger and more developed student doctors come time for clerkship rotations and real patients.”
Learn more about being an SP or apply.