Overview of the
Program

What is a SP?

How do I
Become a SP?

Information for
Current SPs

Schedule of
Events

SP Home

How Are Standardized Patients Used in Teaching?

UNC students work with Standardized Patients (SPs) for two purposes- to learn and practice professional behaviors and clinical skills, and to demonstrate their competence in these same areas.

SP's allow students to practice interviewing, counseling, and clinical examination skills with persons who are trained to portray scenarios derived from real clinical situations and challenges. Cases or scenarios are designed to provide an opportunity to develop and refine important skills and to, subsequently, demonstrate competence in those same skills and professional behaviors.

How SPs are used as a learning resource

SPs are used in two required medical courses and an interdisciplinary activity:

• Introduction to Clinical Medicine Courses (ICM) 1& 2. During the first year ICM 1 course students learn & practice specific skills, such as interviewing, taking a history, or doing a physical exam. In ICM 2, students practice and improve their clinical skills. An external group of instructors also teach students more specific skills, such as performing the breast exam. Details of these encounters can be found in the syllabi for the ICM 1 and ICM 2 courses (for intranet users only).
  
  
• Health Affairs Interdisciplinary Case Conference (HAICC). This is a three-hour seminar that comprises small group sessions with over 600 students from dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation counseling, speech and hearing, and social work. The case conferences are designed to teach students how to collaboratively develop a patient-centered management plan using a World Health Organization model. Students interview a standardized patient, and learn about each other's professions and approaches to health care. Each interdisciplinary group is led by a facilitator.

  For more information about the interdisciplinary case conference, check the HAICC web site, sponsored by the Office of Educational Development.
  
  

How SPs are used to assess performance

The two most common types of evaluations used by health professional schools to observe and assess students' clinical skills at key points in their education are the Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) and the Clinical Performance Exam (CPX). Both exams use SPs and have similar formats.

• The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) allows faculty, SPs and/or other health professionals to observe and evaluate how well students perform specific clinical skills and behaviors. The exam usually consists of several stations (or examination rooms) where SPs present a variety of patient problems. Students rotate through these timed stations. At each station, a student is asked to perform a specific, measurable task such as taking a patient history or performing a focused physical exam (e.g., heart exam, knee exam, eye exam). At each station an observer is asked to score the student's performance on a particular skill. The examiner may be in the room with the student or observing on a monitor. SP's and/or faculty observers complete checklists for each observed skill/station.

Standardized patients are currently used for OSCE's in the medical school's ICM 1 course (syllabus available only to intranet users), and the PharmD program at the School of Pharmacy.

• The Clinical Performance Examination (CPX) is similar to the OSCE, with a few exceptions. While the overall format of the exam is the same, the CPX is a comprehensive examination that requires students to demonstrate a number of clinical skills and behaviors across 12 different patient encounters. The CPX is conducted in the Ambulatory Care Facility and SP's undergo 10-20 hours of training to ensure that these encounters are authentic. At UNC, the CPX is a 'high-stakes' exam, that determines whether students advance to the next level or graduate.

  For more information about the School of Medicine exam, check the CPX web site, sponsored by the Office of Educational Development.
  
  

Dr. Cherri Hobgood, Program Director
Joey Woodyard, Clinical Assessment Director (843-9378)

Clinical Skills Center
Office of Educational Development
UNC-CH School of Medicine
CB 7530 Rm. 1045 Burnett-Womack
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7530
main office: (919) 966-3643
Office web site: http://www.med.unc.edu/oed