Attitude Survey of Medical School Staff After Simulated Patient Experiences

Abstract

Background: With the spread of medical communication education and objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), greater numbers of simulated patients/standardized patients (SPs) will likely be needed throughout Japan. At Tokyo Medical University, non-medical professional medical school staff have acted as SPs in post-clinical clerkship OSCE. There are no reports of any staff other than teaching staff and medical staff acting as SPs. The significance of large numbers of medical school staff acting as SPs needs to be clarified. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey of staff after acting as SPs. The questionnaire was developed from semi-structured interviews. Results: The majority of responses were positive, saying that they had learned about the testing and students and that they felt the importance of communication for doctors. Many respondents said that staff of a medical school should experience being an SP and that many staff should try it. Conclusions: For medical school staff, being an SP is one way to learn about student education. Japan has problems with SPs becoming older and fewer in number nationwide, but SP numbers may be supplemented by staff.