Medical Education Using Standardized Patients.
- Author:
Hoon Ki PARK
1
Author Information
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords: Patient Simulation; Medical Education; Undergraduate; Competency-Based Education
- MeSH: Checklist; Competency-Based Education; Delivery of Health Care; Education, Medical; Humans; Organization and Administration; Patient Simulation
- From:Hanyang Medical Reviews 2012;32(1):35-44
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
- Abstract: This article is intended to review up to date knowledge about standardized patients (SPs) and SP-based objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) in medical education. SPs have become almost indispensable in the education and training of health care professionals. The utilization of SPs provides an invaluable contribution to the creation of a safe, yet realistic, learner-centered environment. While SPs provide a realistic experience of patient interaction that can be evaluated by a third party observer, they can also be trained to assess the student's performance and provide feedback to the student with consistency. Standardization of the performance, recording student behaviors by well-developed checklists, and/or receiving feedback from the SPs are important parameters of the educational experience and provide a meaningful evaluation of student performance. In assessment, SPs are used most commonly in the context of formal examinations, often referred to as OSCEs. An OSCE should be prepared step by step according to principles of appropriate logistics. The validity of the OSCE assessment is increased by matching educational content with the balanced blue print matrix for comprehensive performance examination. The thorough training of all physician/SP raters involved during the whole observation time in which students interact with SPs is critical to the reliable OSCE. SP-based OSCE has its own limitations, so it is to be judged as one among many evaluation methods for competency and/or performance.
