Effective communication skills are a professional competency, yet are often overlooked during training. Providing immediate and constructive feedback is imperative to assist students in developing better communication skills. We sought to evaluate the educational value of using a university-developed application, Rapid Feedback, to provide feedback following students' oral presentations over two years. An online survey comprising of eight 5-point Likert scale items and one open-ended question was conducted in 114 (response rate = 86.5%) students. Students either strongly agreed or agreed that the feedback delivered was timely (98%), relevant (96%), high quality (90%), and specific to enhance their learning (87%). The feedback obtained has helped to identify strengths and weaknesses (87%). Students commented that feedback received will improve their communication skills (90%). The report was also shown to supplement verbal feedback (95%). Overall, students expressed that the feedback report was valuable, allowing for critical self-reflection and future retention. Staff have also found the application easy to use and administer. In a time-and resource-constrained teaching environment, educators constantly explore technology to support student learning and teaching outcomes. We have implemented an application that is user-friendly to staff, efficient, and has provided effective feedback that is well-received and valued by students.

International interest in the teaching and assessment of clinical skills across the professional continuum has fueled extensive use of simulated parents in multiple station events by medical schools and professional organizations devoted to assessment. The author discuss achievements and challenges in the use of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and simulated patient (SP) for medical education and assessment. The author revisits and expands subject put forth as 'technical issues related to logistics' that summarize group discussions of conference attendees in 1992 by Anderson and Kassebaum, editors of the Proceedings of the Association of American Medical Colleges' Consensus Conference on the Use of Standardised Patients in the Teaching and Evaluation of Clinical Skills. The author describes and discusses current terminology; evolving conceptual and practical applications of the OSCE that utilize simulated patients in medical education and high-stakes assessment for licensure and certification; standards of practice in SP case materials development, recruitment, training and quality assurance; operational and research questions for the future in the use of SPs, centralized SP programs and staffing; faculty development in the use of the SP and OSCE; program costs, event space, test and web-based video access and security issues; document and data management of SP programs; development of web-based and online resources and the founding of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators(ASPE), a specialist professional organization.

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Changes in psychiatric health care delivery driven by such major shifts as deinstitutionalization, community-based care, and managed care have greatly altered the educational milieu for third-year psychiatry clerkships. Students may be assigned exclusively to alcohol and substance abuse treatment units, consultation-liaison services, or outpatient clinics, and may not have as broad an exposure as is desirable to patients with a variety of psychiatric illnesses. The authors describe a pilot course they developed in 2001, Clinical Psychiatric Assessment and Diagnosis, for third-year medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences medical school. The course uses standardized patients (SPs) to help students gain broader clinical experience. In psychiatry, a growing body of literature supports the acceptability, reliability, and validity of objective structured clinical examination assessment using SPs for medical students. Only a few articles report the use of SPs to primarily teach psychiatry instead of evaluating student proficiency in clinical psychiatry. Since this course was developed, the National Board of Medical Examiners announced that all medical students will be required to pass a clinical skills test in order to practice medicine, beginning with the class of 2005. The examination will use SPs modeling different clinical scenarios. In light of this change, many medical schools may have to reevaluate and possibly revamp their curriculums to insure sufficient acquisition of clinical skills in different specialties. The use of SPs in psychiatry could provide an effective, primary clinical teaching experience to address this new requirement as well.