Lead Authors: Emily J. Noonan, Carrie Bohnert
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Disparities in health and healthcare for gender minorities (GMs) such as transgender people are significant, and medical educators have a responsibility to ensure trainees master the clinical skills required to provide them with quality care. The authors implemented a standardized patient (SP) scenario designed to measure students’ ability to provide gender-affirming care and sought to understand the experiences and perceptions of the GMs who served as SPs in this case. Their key research question was: how do GM SPs describe the experience of serving as an SP on a gender-affirming care clinical case?

By: C. Roth, K. Eldin, V. Padmanabhan, E. Friedman
Submitted by Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

Medical Teacher has articles entitled “Twelve …” that I always find useful. This particular one provides twelve easy steps to help develop and introduce emotional intelligence into our curriculum. Developing emotional intelligence is vital to enhance patient centered care, clinical outcomes, patient safety, as well as team building.

Lead Author: Kelly V. Johnson, EdD, RN
Submitted by: Marsha Harman, Rush University

Utilizing standardized patients (SPs) as a strategy to potentially improve beginning level nursing students’ confidence, satisfaction, and communication after simulated clinical cases is an innovative approach in nursing education. To examine how an SP encounter affects these three things, first semester undergraduate nursing students completed a simulation either an SP or high-fidelity manikin. Students who completed the simulation with an SP reported greater satisfaction and improved communication.

Lead Author: Pierre A. Geoffroy
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, NBOME Chicago

A group of researchers at Paris Diderot University conducted a randomized controlled study. They compared the effectiveness of teaching communication skills via standardized patients versus a conventional lecture format. The Standardized Patients helped the medical student perform 5 particular communication skills better than the lecture counterpart.

Lead Author: Kathleen Hanley
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, NBOME

A group of medical educators look for patterns in the development of communication skills in a cohort of medical students. The reported results show an overall increase in communication skills but leave a question for further research about whether or not an Introductory Clinical Experience at the beginning of medical school is a good predictor of performance on future communication skills.

Author: Rashmi A. Kusurkar
Submitted by: Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda University

The author has provided an interesting discussion that describes autonomous motivation and its necessity in the practice of medical education. Autonomous motivation is “motivation that arises out of genuine interest or personal endorsement or valuing of an activity”. This type of personal motivation creates life-long learners, which is a vital goal in medical education.

Lead Author: Melodee Harris, PhD, APRN, FAAN
Submitted by: Marsha Harman, Rush University

Standardized patient (SP) simulation is used to teach geropsychiatry. This project tested feasibility and effectiveness of video-enabled SP simulation to teach interprofessional (IP) late-life depression screening. The study focuses on the potential advantages of remote learning for students in rural areas, including savings on travel and faculty time. (In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional advantage is the ability to continue simulation-based learning while maintaining social distancing.)

Lead author: Rachel Boykan
Submitted by: Todd Lash, The Ohio State University

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a well-established evidence-based method of working with patients to promote health behavior change. Standardized patient (SP) simulation allows trainees to practice and receive feedback on clinical and communication skills and may be useful in applying MI techniques to address tobacco use and exposure. The authors developed two SP cases for pediatric residents to practice addressing tobacco use with parents of their patients.

Lead author: Wendi F. Cross
Submitted by: Todd Lash, The Ohio State University

Background: Suicide is a national public health crisis and a critical patient safety issue. It is the 10th leading cause of death overall and the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults (15–34 years old). Research shows 80% of youth who died by suicide saw their primary care provider within the year of their death. It is imperative that primary care providers develop the knowledge and skills to talk with patients about distress and suicidal thoughts, and to assess and respond in the context of the ongoing patient - primary care provider relationship.

By: George Shand
Submitted by Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

This article presents an interesting discussion regarding the development of Open Resource Clinical Assessments (ORCAs). These assessments allow students to utilize internet resources during SP encounters just as physicians do in real practice. Assessing a student’s judgment regarding their choice of resources, interpretation of the information, and their application of this knowledge to the patient’s concern and treatment plan could be valuable in assessing their skill in information management.  

Lead Author: S. O’Rourke
Submitted by Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

I am personally not a big fan of virtual patients, but the findings in this study have given me pause to rethink my attitude toward virtual vs real patients. Their findings add credence for the use of virtual SPs even when dealing with difficult scenarios such as delivering bad news.

Lead Author: Janna M. Wisniewski, PhD; Brigham Walker, MS
Submitted by: Dan Brown, Emory University School of Medicine

This study used seven Simulated Patients belonging to three ethnic groups (self-reported as white, black, Hispanic) to call 804 randomized physician offices to attempt to schedule an appointment. All patients, if asked, would report being uninsured and paying out of pocket. The black and Hispanic patients were asked about their insurance significantly more frequently than the white patients. They also had a longer average wait time until their appointment.

By: Roberts, Laura
Submitted by Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

Laura Roberts, in a well-written piece, reminds us that many of our students, tragically, still face bias, discrimination, microaggressions, and exclusionary practices in medical school. She includes results from the 2019 Medical School Graduate Questionnaire that should make all of us take notice and work hard to help each student we interact with feel respected and valued.

Lead Author: Marie-Claire O’Shea
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

This study describes a telehealth interprofessional simulation-based learning experience with nutrition and dietetics and exercise physiology students. The common practice area of interacting with patients who have type 2 diabetes was targeted, and the simulation was delivered in partnership with simulated patients via a telehealth platform to allow interprofessional teams to work collaboratively in remote locations.

By: Tanisha Jowsey
Submitted by: Todd Lash, The Ohio State University

Regulatory authorities in healthcare are authorized to develop and assess the cultural competence of their professionals. There remains significant diversity on approaches to cultural competency training and assessment. Little evidence exists about whether existing cultural competency training leads to improved patient health outcomes and reductions in health disparity.

Lead Author: Gulsen Tasdelen Teker
Submitted by: Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

We all know how hard it is to recruit instructors to participate in OSCE assessment. One alternative is to use standardized patients as raters. However, are they as reliable as instructors are? Although not a large study, I found the results very interesting.

Lead Author: Hye-Rim Jin
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, NBOME Chicago

The authors of this study in Korea have asked what drives Standardized Patients to do great simulation work.  Their results give further explanation to studies that have been conducted since the 1990s, offering examples of how SPs find meaning in their work, are shown empathy for their work, and participate in the education process.

Lead Author: Timothy Wood
Submitted by: Kathy Herzberger, Loma Linda School of Medicine

This is a very interesting article reexamining the relationship between increased training and scoring instruments on OSCE stations. This study explores whether checklists or global rating scales are better at evaluating increasing levels of expertise.

Lead Author: Tiffany Kindratt
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, NBOME Chicago

Scholarly literature has expanded on the benefits of literacy programs designed to get parents and children between the ages of 6 months to 5 years reading together. Many of those studies have shown that training in residency on programs like Reach Out and Read may improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward pediatric literacy. Previous studies, however, lacked simulation experiences in which learners can practice the communication skills necessary to engage with patients and caregivers.

Lead Author: Cheryl D’souza
Submitted by: Catherine Hagele, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Empathy scores have been found to decline over the years spent in medical school. These authors aimed to evaluate the change in empathy levels in medical students following a single-session communications skills training. While levels initially went up, they then went down after a few weeks. A regular communications skills training program may enhance empathy and prevent its decline over the years.