Common Questions
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What is a standardized patient?
A standardized patient (SP) is a person trained to portray a medical patient including the patient’s medical history, physical findings, and emotional or behavioral characteristics. SPs may present their own medical histories, either to help students learn about past or current medical problems they have experienced or to allow students to practice basic interviewing and physical exam skills. SPs also may be trained to consistently and accurately simulate a patient in a medical encounter for teaching and evaluation purposes. Depending on the situation, SPs may serve as a patient, a teacher, or an evaluator of clinical interactions. SPs are especially effective in giving feedback related to communication or interpersonal skills.
Why are standardized patients used?
With the use of SPs, realistic learning and evaluation situations can be created for students based on real-life clinical experiences. SPs provide a safe and accommodating environment for students to practice, take risks, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately build confidence and competence. SPs are valuable in helping health professions students translate classroom knowledge into clinical expertise in a controlled environment. Additionally, by using patients trained to simulate cases, a specific medical scenario can be experienced time and again by different students.
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What participation opportunities exist for standardized patients at the University of Minnesota?
A wide variety of opportunities exist for interested people to participate. Opportunities range from having patients present with their own medical history and conditions to role playing medical scenarios. Some assignments, such as those portraying emotional or complex roles, require considerable preparation and acting. Others require a capacity for teaching, giving constructive feedback, or providing evaluation.
Who can participate in the Standardized Patient Program?
The program is committed to providing opportunities for health professions students to interact with a diverse patient population reflective of actual clinical practice. Individuals 16 years and older of all backgrounds, educations, cultures, and experiences are encouraged to participate. All SPs should be interested in working in an educational capacity for the betterment of students. Additionally, SPs need to be responsible, conscientious, patient, and able to participate in training sessions to develop proficiency in their performance for specific events. No prior medical knowledge, training, or acting experience is necessary.
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What is the commitment required to participate as a standardized patient?
The use of SPs is driven by specific curricular needs. As such, SP events vary in frequency and duration. Events may last as little as one hour or fill an entire day, and they may occur once or take place over several weeks or months. The frequency of patient participation varies as well from as little as one event each year to as many as several times a month.
Where and when do standardized patient events take place?
The majority of SP events take place at the East Bank of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. The Interprofessional Education and Resource Center (IERC) is the clinical skills lab for all health sciences students at the University and is the location for many of the campus-based SP events. Some activities also take place at the surrounding hospitals and health care facilities in the Twin Cities. Though occasionally events will be scheduled on a weeknight or on the weekend, the vast majority of events take place during weekdays.
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What are the benefits of being a standardized patient?
SPs enjoy participating in the education of future healthcare providers and derive value from using their own medical conditions and experiences to directly benefit students. SPs also enjoy interacting with students, their instructors, and fellow SPs. Many SPs directly benefit from becoming more empowered communicators with medical personnel and more active participants in their own healthcare decisions. For participating in SP functions, SPs typically receive a payment of $10/hour for roles asking patients to present as themselves and $15/hour for simulated roles or exam situations. Training sessions pay at the same hourly rate as the event. For payment purposes, SPs are considered Independent Contractors with the University of Minnesota. As such, SPs receive a 1099 form at the end of the year and are responsible for declaring their income from the program and paying the appropriate taxes. Withholdings are not taken from paychecks.
What sort of training and preparation is required for different roles?
Nearly every event requires some type of training prior to participating. Training may take place as individual or group sessions a day or more in advance of the event or as an orientation session immediately before the event begins. All logistics for training are discussed with SP when they agree to participate in the event. For role play assignments and for some other roles as well, SPs often need to spend additional personal time after the training session to master their role.
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How is medical privacy handled for standardized patients?
The SP Program staff confidentially maintains a basic description of the major health history of each SP for the purposes of identifying individuals potentially useful for specific events. In events requiring SPs to disclose any personal health information, the students, faculty, and staff are instructed to operate with the same confidentiality standards that are expected in professional practice.
How long has the Standardized Patient Program existed at the University of Minnesota?
In the summer of 1999, the Medical School established a school-wide SP program. While housed in the Medical School, the SP Program grew from providing patients for a single course for second year medical students to having involvement with over 15 different programs. Additionally, the SP program began to be used by other University of Minnesota professional health programs. In the summer of 2003, the SP program moved to the Office of Education in the Academic Health Center, promoting increased use of SPs across the different professional health schools, centers, and programs. In addition to continuing to build on current uses of SPs by the medical school, future use of SPs will include events with dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and veterinary medicine students.
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How do I become a standardized patient?
To become part of the SP pool, interested individuals should complete the Standardized Patient Application form. Individuals who have submitted a completed form may be invited to interview with the Standardized Patient Program to become active in the SP pool and eligible to participate in future events.
Once I am in the standardized patient pool, how am I selected to participate in events?
Specific curricular needs determine uses of SPs for each event. As an SP, you would be invited to participate in specific events based on a combination of these needs and your training, past performance, interest, and availability. Some roles have specific demographic and physical requirements that will also impact your suitability for an event. Because needs for SPs are specific and variable, being active in the SP pool does not guarantee participation in future events. When you are contacted to participate in an event, you may choose whether or not to accept the assignment. Declining any participation opportunity will not impact your status in the SP pool; you will remain active in the SP pool until you choose to change your status to inactive.
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What are the expectations if I am selected to participate in an event as a standardized patient?
When you accept an assignment as an SP, you are expected to attend any necessary training for the event, arrive prepared and on time, and perform successfully throughout the event. Other specific expectations for an event would be discussed with you prior to making a commitment.
Who can I contact if I have more questions?
If you have further questions about participating in the SP Program, please contact the SP Program Coordinator, Anne Woll, by phone at (612) 624-9691 or by email at wollx003@umn.edu.
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