Standardized Patients in Medical Education: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Flanagan O L, Cummings K M
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The research questions posed for this review were as follows: do medical students in their first two years of education who have practiced skills using SPs have more self-confidence in their ability to perform skills on real patients than those students who did not use SPs? Do medical students in their third and fourth years of medical school have higher clinical competency with sensitive patient examinations after using SPs in their first two years of medical education than those students who did not use SPs? And finally, do medical students who have used SPs for discussing sensitive issues have better interpersonal skills when they encounter real patients in the clinical setting than those who have not used SPs? I’m going to take a leap and say yes.

Read the full study here.

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