Standardized Patients

Standardized or simulated patients (SPs) are individuals purposefully coached to collaborate with healthcare educators and trainees on the teaching and practicing of learner clinical skills primarily focused on patient-clinician communication, medical interviewing, and physical exam skills. SPs work with healthcare students by portraying patients during simulated patient-clinician encounters, providing constructive feedback to students, and instructing them on physical exam skills. Standardized patient educators (SPEs) are simulation education professionals who manage SP programs. SPEs recruit, hire, orient, and coach SPs to participate in simulated education events designed to train learners affiliated with organizations such as university health sciences programs and hospitals. A key tenet behind the ubiquitous adoption of SP methodology in the United States since its inception in the 1960s is that SPs provide healthcare learners the opportunity to practice clinical skills without harming clinic or hospital patients or themselves. On March 11, 2020 when the World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 global pandemic, SPEs were quick to pivot in-person SP education events held onsite in simulation centers to synchronous online formats. Clinical faculty worked with SPEs to maximize this as an opportunity to support expanded initiatives online for telehealth training and interprofessional education. The future of SP methodology will likely meld innovations in distance learning achieved in the pandemic with onsite SP education in support of clinical skills training for health sciences learners.