JPINFV
Gadfly
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No practice on one another? I'm not talking about intimate exams, but the more routine stuff?
I'm not sure what they pay these people, but for enough money I'd let people check my prostate all day...just sayin'
The thing with the standardized patients is that it's treated as an actual timed encounter. Chart on the door to a mock exam room. Also, they're trained to act as a patient. That means providing appropriate and instantaneous answers to questions (unlike students, myself include, who might hem and haw over things like "Rate the pain"), and asking to complete a full exam.
I'm not going to ask a female student to take off her shirt and lift her left breast so I can palpate the point of maximum impulse and listen to the bicuspid valve.
I will, without a second thought, as a female patient (standardized or otherwise) to lower her gown and lift her left breast.
These also aren't directly observed (video camera and microphone in the rooms) and the SPs go over a checklist covering both exam components as well as communication skills. As such, there's feedback from the patient's perspective.
For the intimate exams (breast, pelvic, prostate/male genital), those are both SPs with additional training and pay, as well as directly supervised by a resident or physician with feedback from the patient.
