“Who Am I and Why Am I Here?” A Scoping Review Exploring the Templates and Protocols That Direct Actors in Their Roles as Simulated (Standardized) Patients

Abstract

Simulated patients (SPs) are increasingly used in health education and research. The aim of this article was to investigate templates and protocols that enable SPs to accurately and consistently adopt these roles. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews guided the search strategy for articles that detailed such templates or protocols. Embase Classic + Embase, ProQuest ERIC, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMCare, psycINFO, and Scopus were searched, and 17 articles were included in the review. The templates and protocols that were located differed in structure, length, and depth and were developed or used in medical, nursing, allied health, and veterinary medicine disciplines. The validity, reliability, and replicability of studies are explored, and the quality of reporting is evaluated using the Simulation Research Rubric. Recommendations for increasing the rigor of programs and the reporting of research where SPs are adopted are considered.

Overview of implementation and learning outcomes of simulation in pharmacy education

“…Standardized colleagues portray physicians or other healthcare professionals to be on the receiving end of recommendations and interact in a simulated interprofessional healthcare environment. In an ideal setting, standardized colleagues are played by a healthcare professional because a background that includes clinical training generally produces more realistic encounters 86,87 …”

It Is Not Just the Script that Matters: Overlooked Elements in Standardized Patient Methodology

“…Talwaker et al 4 frame the use of SPs in fulfilling curricular learning objectives through 12 helpful tips. However, neither they nor Davies et al 1 take into account the role of the actor in the construction of the script as being a key factor in the successful implementation of the scenario.…”

“…In their latest article, Davies et al 1 focus on the implementation of templates and protocols to orient instructors in the construction of scripts to improve the validity and consistency of scenarios with the aim of meeting the objectives established within the learning activity.…”

“…As the authors report, there is a great deal of information in the literature concerning the utility, advantages, and disadvantages in the use of SPs in the teaching/ learning process, [1][2][3] and there is little reported in the literature about structuring scenarios, writing scripts, and especially the instruction and training of the SPs themselves. 4 Talwaker et al 4 frame the use of SPs in fulfilling curricular learning objectives through 12 helpful tips.…”

Can students in simulation portray a psychotherapy patient authentically with a detailed role-script? Results of a randomized-controlled study.

“…Some studies used structured scripts for the training of specific psychotherapeutic skills (Coyle et al, 1998), and others used no specific script, but clinical case vignettes (Imel et al, 2014). A recent review (Davies et al, 2021) confirmed that instructions used for SPs varied in terms of structure, length, and depth.…”