Perceptions of a longitudinal standardized patient experience by standardized patients, medical students, and faculty

Background: As the facilitator of the standardized patient rotation at the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine (now Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine [KSUCPM]) for the past 4 years, I have felt that there is underused time in the program. Therefore, I sought the views of podiatric medical students at KSUCPM who have completed the standardized patient rotation to see how they felt their time in the course was used and whether they felt that the course was useful to them in terms of advancing their podiatric medical education. Methods: A survey was administered to 105 third-year podiatric medical students. These students had already completed the standardized patient rotation, which at KSUCPM is in the second year. Results: Seventy-seven students completed the survey. Most of these students felt that there was improperly used time in the course, and many recommended ways of improving the course organization. Conclusions: The students answered positively that the standardized patient rotation was important in terms of improving interviewing skills and worthwhile for future professional development. The students agreed that there likely was underused time in the course and even suggested ways in which they would make the course run more efficiently. (J Am Podiatr Med Assoc 102(6): 477–484, 2012)

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Opinions of medical students about standardized patient use in clinical communication skills assessment

Türkiye Aile Hekimliği Dergisi ◽

10.2399/tahd.09.023 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 23-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Güzel Dişcigil

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Skills Assessment ◽

Standardized Patient ◽

Clinical Communication ◽

Patient Use

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Medical Students and Patients Benefit from Virtual Non-Medical Interactions Due to COVID-19

Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development ◽

10.1177/23821205211028343 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 238212052110283

Author(s):

Taylor M Coe ◽

Trevor J McBroom ◽

Sarah A Brownlee ◽

Karen Regan ◽

Stephen Bartels ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Patient Experience ◽

Clinical Medicine ◽

Organ Transplant ◽

Medical Patient ◽

Pilot Program ◽

Transplant Recipients ◽

Kidney Transplant Recipients ◽

Clinical Communication

Background: Patient care restrictions created by the COVID-19 pandemic constrained medical students’ ability to interact directly with patients. Additionally, organ transplant recipients faced increasing isolation due to the rise of telemedicine, the importance of social distancing and their immunosuppressed state. We created a pilot program to pair students with transplant patients for structured, virtual encounters and studied its impact on medical students and patients. Methods: In May 2020, medical students conducted virtual visits with patients via telephone or video conferencing. Patients and students were surveyed regarding their experiences and independent focus groups were conducted. The survey responses and focus group discussions were deidentified, transcribed, and analyzed for themes. Results: Ten participating students were in their first, second, or final year of medical school. The 14 patients were liver or kidney transplant recipients or kidney donors. All interactions lasted longer than 30 minutes, with 56% greater than 1 hour. Three themes emerged related to the student experience: improvement of their clinical communication skills, development of knowledge and attitudes related to organ transplantation and donation, and independent management of a patient encounter. Three themes related to the patient experience: appreciation of the opportunity to share their personal patient experience to help educate future physicians, a cathartic and personally illuminating experience and an opportunity to share the message of donation. Conclusions: This pilot program provided a novel opportunity for virtual student-patient interactions that was feasible, well-received, and mutually beneficial. The use of virtual non-medical patient experiences allowed for experiential learning during which students learned about both clinical medicine and enhanced their communication skills directly from patients. Additionally, patients were able to engage with medical students in a new way, as teachers of clinical interactions, and reported a high level of satisfaction in addition to deriving personal benefit.

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Correlations between Medical Students’ Self Assessment of Communication Skills and Patient-Physician Interaction Assessed by Standardized Patients in Clinical Performance Examination

International Journal of Bio-Science and Bio-Technology ◽

10.14257/ijbsbt.2015.7.3.01 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Seieun Oh ◽

Woo Jeong Kim ◽

Min Young Kim

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Clinical Performance ◽

Standardized Patients ◽

Self Assessment ◽

Performance Examination

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Differences in Faculty and Standardized Patient Scores on Professionalism for Second-Year Podiatric Medical Students During a Standardized Simulated Patient Encounter

Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association ◽

10.7547/15-175 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 108 (2) ◽

pp. 145-150

Author(s):

James M. Mahoney ◽

Vassilios Vardaxis ◽

Noreen Anwar ◽

Jacob Hagenbucher

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Faculty Member ◽

Real Time ◽

Assessment Tool ◽

Simulated Patient ◽

Standardized Patient ◽

Patient Encounter ◽

Second Year ◽

The Difference ◽

Share Information

Background: This study examined the differences between faculty and trained standardized patient (SP) evaluations on student professionalism during a second-year podiatric medicine standardized simulated patient encounter. Methods: Forty-nine second-year podiatric medicine students were evaluated for their professionalism behavior. Eleven SPs performed an assessment in real-time, and one faculty member performed a secondary assessment after observing a videotape of the encounter. Five domains were chosen for evaluation from a validated professionalism assessment tool. Results: Significant differences were identified in the professionalism domains of “build a relationship” (P = .008), “gather information” (P = .001), and share information (P = .002), where the faculty scored the students higher than the SP for 24.5%, 18.9%, and 26.5% of the cases, respectively. In addition, the faculty scores were higher than the SP scores in all of the “gather information” subdomains; however, the difference in scores was significant only in the “question appropriately” (P = .001) and “listen and clarify” (P = .003) subdomains. Conclusions: This study showed that professionalism scores for second-year podiatric medical students during a simulated patient encounter varied significantly between faculty and SPs. Further consideration needs to be given to determine the source of these differences.

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The Efficacy of Hybrid Telesimulation with Standardized Patients in Teaching Medical Students Clinical Lactation Skills: A Pilot Study

Breastfeeding Medicine ◽

10.1089/bfm.2020.0253 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Olivia S. Anderson ◽

Katrina Weirauch ◽

Rosemary Roper ◽

Julie Phillips ◽

Carolyn McCabe ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Standardized Patients

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Virtual Standardized Patients for Interactive Conversational Training

Exploring the Cognitive, Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Gaming and Simulations - Advances in Game-Based Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7461-3.ch003 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 62-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Thomas B. Talbot ◽

Albert Skip Rizzo

Keyword(s):

Language Processing ◽

Medical Patient ◽

Standardized Patients ◽

Virtual Human ◽

Standardized Patient ◽

User Training ◽

Pedagogical Design ◽

Standard Patient ◽

Mixed Initiative

The USC Standard Patient is a virtual human-based conversational agent serving in the role of a simulated medical patient, also known as a virtual standardized patient (VSP). This research identified deficiencies of extant VSP systems, defined a robust set of requirements, and successfully achieved nearly all of them. Markedly impressive advancements were made in virtual human technology, techniques to apply natural language processing, automated assessment artificial intelligence, and pedagogical design. The effort succeeded with performance parameters of high conversational performance, accurate assessment, and strongly demonstrated user training effect. Although working well within its confined are of expertise, the ability for computers to create authentic mixed initiative conversations remains elusive. This effort leaves behind many lessons for interactive serious games, clinical virtual humans, and conversational virtual human training applications.

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Development and Evaluation of an Objective Tympanic Membrane Visualization Assessment Technique

Annals of Otology Rhinology & Laryngology ◽

10.1177/0003489420912438 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 129 (8) ◽

pp. 767-771 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Amir A. Hakimi ◽

Simon P. Lalehzarian ◽

Aaron S. Lalehzarian ◽

Ariel M. Azhdam ◽

Benjamin D. Boodaie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical Students ◽

Tympanic Membrane ◽

Low Cost ◽

Training Session ◽

Standardized Patients ◽

First Year ◽

First Year Students ◽

Before And After ◽

Cohort Groups ◽

Tympanic Membranes

Objectives: To introduce an inexpensive method for objectively evaluating otoscopic visualization of the tympanic membrane wherein learners match what they visualize in standardized patients to tympanic membrane photographs. Methods: Two standardized patients had photographs taken of their tympanic membranes using a commercially-available digital otoscope. First- and third-year medical students were asked to perform an otoscopic examination on each patient using a conventional handheld otoscope and to match what they saw with the correct tympanic membrane image among distractor photographs belonging to other patients. The ability of students to match the standardized patients’ tympanic membrane to the correct photographs was assessed before and after a didactic training session. These measurements were compared between the two cohort groups for construct validity. Results: Fifty-one first-year medical students (with no previous otoscopy experience) and 44 third-year medical students (with otoscopy experience from completing pediatric and family medicine clinical clerkships) were recruited to voluntarily participate in this study. At baseline, a larger percentage of third-year students correctly matched both tympanic membranes compared to first-year students (27% vs 8%, P < .01). After otoscopy training, correct matching of both tympanic membranes significantly improved among both first-year students (8-31%, P < .01) and third-year students (27-54%, P < .01). Conclusion: The use of tympanic membrane photographs from standardized patients provides a novel technique for objectively assessing proficiency in otoscopic visualization of the middle ear. The concept is low cost, uses live patients, and can be easily implemented in pre-clinical instruction and beyond.

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