Simulated Patients vs. Standardized Patients in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations

Abstract

Objectives. To describe the use of patient-actors as educators in a senior-level pharmacy practice course, and to contrast the value and application of ''standardized patient'' and ''simulated patient'' educational methodologies. Design. The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) of the licensing examination were utilized during and at the end of the course along with external assessment to determine the impact of this educational methodology. Interviews with a randomly selected cohort of 14 students were undertaken 3 years after graduation and licensure to evaluate long-term impact of this course. Assessment. Overall, students responded positively to the shift from ''standardized'' patients to ''simulated'' patients, recognizing their value in teaching clinical and pharmaceutical care skills. Concerns were expressed regarding objectivity in assessment and individual grading. Over 98% of students successfully passed the OSCE component of the licensing examination. Long-term follow-up suggests students valued this approach to education and that it provided them with a foundation for better understanding of the psychosocial needs of patients in practice. Conclusions. Simulated-patient educators can play an important role in the pharmacy curriculum, and can complement practitioner-educators in providing students with a real-world context for understanding complex patient care needs.

Perception of Pharmacy Students in Malaysia on the Use of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations to Evaluate Competence

“…12 Conversely, the utilization of different graders for the same or even different tasks in OSCEs is acceptable from a learning standpoint, because interrater reliabilities have also been widely reported to be high. 10,12,15 Although we did not conduct any interrater reliability testing, the similarity in test scores has given us some hint that the perceived variability or lack of fairness in grading was not reflected in the actual marks between corresponding graders/stations. In order to make future OSCEs more transparent, valid, and reliable, they should not be conducted in 2 separate locations unless standardized participants are used as graders.…”

Pharmacy Students' Preferences for Various Types of Simulated Patients

“…Current doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curricula also commonly engage pharmacy students in learning and assessment activities involving standardized or simulated patients based on similar education benefits. [8][9][10][11][12][13] While the benefit of using simulated patients has been well documented in both the medical and pharmacy education literature, [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] less attention has been focused on the comparison of various simulated patient types. (Note: this manuscript uses the term simulated patient, which is more specific to people who are trained to represent a patient with a history and laboratory profile, rather than the broader term of standardized patient.…”

Physical Assessment Experience in a Problem-Based Learning Course

“…Also, there is concern regarding consistency of experiences when using standardized patients. [24][25][26] Simulation mannequins do not have these inherent limitations and, therefore, have been used to successfully educate healthcare professionals. [27][28][29][30] However, because mannequins can be cost-prohibitive for many programs, use of the simulation stethoscope seemed to provide an economically feasible opportunity for students to hear cardiac and pulmonary sounds in a more real-world scenario.…”