Lead author: Angelina Fluet | Submitted by: Erin Walsh, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science 

To gather Standardized Patients perspectives on bias the authors designed a qualitative interview study and conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 SPs. The interviews were conducted from July to September of 2020. It was concluded that bias occurs in multiple directions including SP-to student. student-to SP, student-to character, and SP- to -character. Additionally, SPs shared they feel there is bias during scenario development and SP recruitment and training. The authors determined that identifying areas where bias occurs can help simulationists alleviate bias. 

By: Kerensa Peterson, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine

Tan Le is an internationally recognized innovator and entrepreneur. She gave the final keynote speech at IMSH this past January. While gaining recognition for her pioneering work in the emerging field of brain-computer interface, she is also known for her work as a social activist and public speaker. At the IMSH Conference, Tan Le focused on the bravery of her family and how her life experiences as an immigrant shaped her into the person she has become. Her story was inspiring and I was eager to learn more about her and her work after seeing her speak.

By: Ignacio del Moral, PhD, MD
Submitted by: Darrell Brock, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Ignacio’s reflections on how a life-death encounter with a patient and a chance pamphlet lead him on a journey to the heart of simulation education. In a very relatable way, the doctor stumbles upon simulation education and comes to love it. Over time, Dr.Ignacio would become one of Spain’s most notable figures in simulation education. 

Author: Mary Launder, Rosalind Franklin University

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 2022 ASPE Conference “Celebrating Our History, Imagining Our Future”.  What an extremely special conference this past year, we were back in person!!! Looking back there was a wealth of remarkable contributions given to the ASPE community. One way this depth of extraordinary work is highlighted is through the annual awards presented to those outstanding members who serve the ASPE community. Eligible ASPE members are nominated by colleagues and coworkers and the nomination committees hold a standard, fair, and inclusive process. This 2022 awards ceremony was held in person in New Orleans on June 29th, 11:00 AM CST.

Implementing Standardized Patient Caregivers to Practice Difficult Conversations in a Pediatric Dentistry Course
By: Beau D. Meyer, DDS, MPH
Submitted by: Marsha Harman, Rush Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation

The objective of this educational activity was to describe the implementation of three SPs in a pediatric dentistry course for second-year dental students. The authors developed three SP encounters covering interactions with caregivers of an infant with severe early childhood caries, an adolescent on the path to gender affirmation, and a child with autism and dental caries whose caregiver was resistant to fluoride- and silver-containing dental materials. The article describes the case design process, rubric construction and calibration, student debriefing, and pandemic modifications. The effectiveness of the implementation was evaluated by thematic analysis of student reflections following each encounter using a qualitative descriptive framework. Qualitative analysis showed that students preferred a more realistic encounter by having a child or other distraction present. Students relied on different elements of motivational interviewing depending on the objective of each encounter and the age of the patient. Overall, the SP encounters were well received by students and faculty as an alternative or supplement to traditional student evaluation methods. A number of lessons learned about implementing SP methodology in pediatric dental education were noted. With these experiences now in place, future evaluations should measure student performance in the SP encounters against student performance during clinical care.

USML/ Mundelein Cor Luxta Meum Project: Introduction to Simulation Pedagogy
By: Mundelein Seminary
Submitted by: Darrell Brock, University of Pittsburgh

Faculty and students tell an interesting story of how SP methodology is making an impact in theology training at a seminary.

Saudi Health Simulation Conference Celebrates 5^th Year with Entire Week of Events
By: Lance Baily
Submitted by: Darrell Brock, University of Pittsburgh

Riyadh hosts its 5^th annual Health Simulation Conference where it focused on the optimization of healthcare simulation, the safety of patients, facility management, development and innovation, and finally the future of healthcare. Check it out.

Comparison of Resident Self-Evaluation to Standardized Patient Evaluators in a Multi-Institutional Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Lead Author: Benjamin John Diaczok, MD
Submitted by: Nicholas Gonzalez, Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination, or OSCE, has stood the test of time and cemented its use in medical simulation and education. With each institution that applies the use of OSCEs, there comes evaluations, and those who evaluate. This article seeks to shine a light on self-evaluation among residents and if Standardized Patients (SPs) evaluate said residents at a similar level of accuracy. This interrater reliability allows one to view how capable residents are of self-evaluating after taking part in a series of challenging OSCEs, and if they rate their performances higher, lower, or equal to that of SPs’ evaluations.

Inclusion Targets: What’s Legal?
By: ACLU Southern California
Submitted by: Dan Brown, Emory University

Navigating the law when it comes to hiring SPs is challenging. Many sources recommend against asking about demographics to prevent discrimination lawsuits. But how do we improve diversity in our hiring efforts without asking these questions?

Interprofessional Communication in Medical Simulation: Findings from a Scoping Review and Implications for Academic Medicine
Lead Author: Sadie Trammell Velásquez
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Interprofessional communication is an integral part of healthcare. It can be taught in medical school and other health professional schools through interprofessional education (IPE) activities. In this scoping review conducted on simulation-based IPE, the authors describe the characteristics of published simulation IPE activities involving undergraduate medical students in a simulation center. To strengthen IPE simulation, the authors recommend that medical educators deliberately incorporate (1) hybrid instructional methods to bypass logistic hurdles, (2) longitudinal approaches to achieve higher-level learning outcomes, and (3) assessment tools with established validity evidence (IPEC) to measure those outcomes.

Actors Help Medical Students Learn the Less Technical Side of Medicine: How Actors Are Teaching Medical Students Compassion and Understanding for their Patients
By: Paul Jablow
Submitted by: Amy Lorion, NBOME

The Philadelphia Inquirer recently published an article describing the use of standardized patients by local medical schools. This isn’t overly unusual in itself—newspapers occasionally run such articles—but what struck me was the article’s emphasis on the ability of SPs to make a genuine difference in the lives and professional work of medical students, particularly in sensitive areas such as race and gender. The author, Paul Jablow, centers SPs in the article, showing them as educators in themselves, not just a tool used by medical schools. As Jablow writes, “While veteran doctors teach them how to repair broken bones and suture wounds, standardized patients teach medical students how to care for people with compassion and understanding.” Although the article is behind a paywall, those with access may find the article a refreshing read with its highlights of SPs making a real difference, often in their own words. And this starts from the beginning of the article, with an anecdote about an SP whose ER doctor recognized him from when she was a medical student 10 years prior: “She thanked me for teaching her to become more sensitive.” 

By: Temple D. West, MMHPE
Submitted by: Marsha Harman, Rush Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation

Standardized patients (SPs) play a pivotal role in medical education. They are proxies for real patients, preparing students to meet the challenges of excellent patient care. Human simulation, with SPs, is used for teaching and assessing communication and clinical skills in medical education around the world. Standardized patients work individually with other faculty, students, or in conjunction with medical faculty to facilitate learning with feedback. In most simulation centers, SPs receive extensive training in communication and clinical skills, yet they inhabit territory often unrecognized as professional in medical education. The manner in which SPs are seen and treated by faculty and students may be a reflection of how real patients are seen and treated—not always heard, not always respected—and this tension detracts from both simulated and real patient encounters. Exploring how SPs, as proxies for real patients, are treated in medical education is a key to what we might learn and how we might close gaps in cultural respect and, ultimately, in patient care.

Lead Author: Soledad Armijo, MD
Submitted by: Leonardo Pérez, Claudia Arancibia & Iván Silva, Clinical Skills Center, University of Chile

La simulación clínica en Latinoamérica ha ganado relevancia como herramienta formativa en las últimas décadas. En la formación de pregrado en Medicina, el cómo enseñar razonamiento clínico de la mejor manera aún requiere de consenso. Armijo-Rivera y equipo comparte en la revista de la Federación Latinoamericana de Simulación Clínica (FLASIC) una revisión del uso de simulación clínica con pacientes simulados como una excelente alternativa para “promover el desarrollo de aptitudes procesales, la comunicación con los pacientes, la entrega de los pacientes, el razonamiento ético y el trabajo en equipo” además de integrar información y ayudar a la toma de decisiones. También advierte que se requiere de estudios longitudinales que consoliden esta base de conocimiento, dado que el razonamiento clínico en medicina es un constructo complejo de enseñar y de evaluar. Así, queda abierta la invitación a investigar y socializar nuestras experiencias en simulación clínica con pacientes simulados en el mundo hispano hablante.

At the Communications and Connections Committee’s invited presentation, How Do I Communicate and Connect with ASPE? The CommConn Committee Tells You How, committee member Dan Brown sat down with five volunteers to interview them about their conference experience. Here are their answers!

When was your first ASPE conference?

Lead author: Laura Weingartner, PhD, MS
Submitted by: Renee Wadsworth, SP-ed

Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people experience extreme health disparities and prejudice in health care settings. The lack of provider training around gender-affirming care for TGD patients has historically contributed to this inadequate care. Patient simulation is a crucial component of teaching medical students about gender-affirming care because it allows students to practice and become more comfortable with these skills in a low-stakes setting.

Lead Author: Linda Frasier
Submitted by Karen Lewis, The George Washington University SMHS

Although standardized patient encounters (SPEs) are being used in occupational therapy (OT) education, limited literature exists on the value these experiences have on OT student learning outcomes and preparation for fieldwork. This study sought to examine if SPEs had the potential to predict Level II A fieldwork performance

Authors: Saul Weiner and Stefan Kertesz
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, University of California Riverside

“Making it into and through medical school is tough even for those who have all the advantages: excellent schools starting at a young age, well-educated parents who may be doctors themselves, lots of role models and…white skin. In this episode we hear from two pre-meds and one newly minted physician, all Black, about their journeys with few of these advantages. Despite their remarkable optimism, their burdens are evident, and many do seem tied to race, as it is understood in the US. The extreme underrepresentation of Blacks in medicine should be a source of deep concern for the profession and for society, as a matter of social justice as well as patient care. The passion of these young men and woman is inspiring, and the mentorship opportunities provided by pipeline programs like the I Am Abel Foundation, which has been central to their lives, offers hope.”  

By: Sandra Jaramillo-Rincón, MD, MHPE, Juan Manuel Potes, MD
Submitted by: Nicholas Gonzalez, The Gordon Center at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Standardized patients (SPs) range from individuals looking for additional work to full blown actors and actresses, to somewhere in the middle. This article entails what advantages SPs have and what skills they bring to the table regarding the teaching/learning process. The authors go into detail discussing the training and further development of acting, thematic, pedagogic, and planning and leadership skills among their SPs.

By Daniel C. Brown, Emory University

Monday morning in New Orleans, the first full day of ASPE’s 2022 conference included a plenary address from three prior ASPE Presidents: Tamara Owens, Grace Gephardt, and Rob MacAulay. The trio regaled the audience with stories from ASPE’s history, reminded the crowd of recent and current accomplishments, shared a vision for the future, and issued calls to action for ASPE members.

Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

It was a pleasure to be back in-person for our 2022 annual conference! One of the highlights every year is the review of published literature in SP methodology, usually run by Dr. Karen Szauter. This year, the job was handed into the capable hands of the Grants and Research Committee. Before they got into the literature, they gave a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Szauter, which culminated in a standing ovation for our esteemed colleague. The committee hailed this literature review as a “celebration of our work”. For 2021, there were 200 papers reviewed, narrowed down to 12 they presented in this session. 6 themes emerged from the work: SP Voices in Social Justice, Addressing the Gap Between Education and Clinical Practice, SP Professional Identity, Advancing SP Educators as Authors, SPs as Assessors, and Interprofessional Education/Program Improvement. A full list will be posted on the ASPE website and added to the existing bibliography here.