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Clinical skill test Standardized Patient Management

Standardized Patient Management

Who are standardized patient?

A standardized patient (SP) is an individual who is trained to act as a patient to simulate clinical scenarios matching each test item in the clinical skill test. Currently, SPs not only perform acting but also evaluate the candidates in the national examination for Physician.

Recruitment of SPs

SPs are recruited from among people aged 20 and over. Mostly they are actors and actresses, housewives and self-employed individuals (students are excluded in the recruitment).

Applicants for SPs must go through the paper screening and interview to be selected for the job. Paper screening is to see if they have conditions to continue the job, and whether they and their family have ever had any relations with a medical school (a graduate school of medicine). Those who are directly or indirectly related to medical schools will not qualify to be SPs.

Interviews are conducted on the applicants who have passed the paper screening. They are given an item scenario to simulate to test their memory, description of the situation and expressiveness.

Education of SPs

Standardized educators in residence of KHPLEI or standardized patient advisors (mostly medical school professors) are responsible for educating SPs. The education consists of basic education and supplementary education. Basic education focuses on training SPs for them to learn the overall contents of item scenarios for each item and to understand their role as actors and evaluators. It also focuses on understanding of the PPI and training to maintain consistency in scoring. The final rehearsal is conducted to ensure the consistency in portrayal and grading between SPs so that they can have practical experience and learn how to respond to unexpected situations that may take place in reality.

Supplementary education is carried out when SPs are found to be somewhat lacking in acting and grading ability.

Management of SPs

SPs who have completed basic education and who show excellent consistency in acting and grading will be used in the clinical skill test.

SPs are run as a team of two. One person will be responsible for the acting, who will grade the physician patient interactions after the acting is over. The other person will observe from outside the test room to grade the overall performance of the candidate.