TECHNICAL ISSUES - LOGISTICS

The author states that she became interested in standardized patients (SPs) around 20 years ago as a means of developing a more uniform and effective way to provide instruction and evaluation of basic clinical skills. She reflects upon in detail (1) the logistics of using SPs in teaching, (2) how SPs are used in assessment; (3) what aspects of performance SPs can be trained to record and evaluate; (4) issues concerning checklists; (5) evaluation of interviewing skills; (6) evaluation of written communication skills; (7) importance of defining what is being tested; (8) various kinds and uses of inter-station exercises and problems of scoring them; (9) case development and the various sources for case material; (10) ways to generate scores; (11) selecting and training SPs; (12) role of the faculty and primary importance of bedside training with real patients; and (13) pros and cons of national versus single-school efforts to use SPs. She concludes by cautioning that further research must be done before SPs can be used for high-stakes certifying and licensing examinations.