Faculty
Working with the Clinical Skills Center
Standardized patient methodology has been established as a valid, reliable and practical method of teaching and evaluating medical students. A properly trained standardized patient can serve as a patient, and evaluator, allowing our future healthcare providers the opportunity to practice specific skills related to history taking, physical examinations, and communications proficiency.
The use of standardized patients allows medical students and faculty to experience:
- Hands-on teaching, patient interaction, examination practice, and assessment of their clinical, professional and communication skills in an authentic examination scenario
- Immediate feedback from faculty
- Patient-centered interviewing techniques
- Patient diversity and cultural differences
- Multiple disease/condition portrayals
- Visual monitoring through video-taping and/or web-streaming
- Ethical dilemmas
- Professionalism issues
The Clinical Skills Center provides opportunities for instruction and assessment in the following areas:
- History-gathering process
- Physical examination
- Diagnosis
- Development of a patient management plan
This complex instruction module takes place in a safe and non-threatening environment. Standardized patients are also used for training tapes, small group discussions and lecture demonstrations.