title: Twelve tips for developing and maintaining a simulated patient bank.
abstract: Simulated patients have become almost indispensable in the education and training of health care professionals. Their contribution to the creation of a safe, yet realistic, learner centred environment is invaluable. Their support in enabling learners at all stages of their professional careers to develop both competence and confidence through repeated practice helps to ensure that learning from real patients can be maximized. A simulated patient bank can enable tracking and training of simulated patients to be coordinated in an effective and efficient way both for patients and learners. This paper shares experiences of developing a simulated patient bank against the background of changes in health care delivery and education and training. Twelve tips to developing and maintaining a simulated patient bank have been identified. The tips focus on the needs of the simulated patient bank and ensure that training is at an appropriate level for the learners, patient care is not compromised and simulated patients feel they are valued members of the educational team.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Skills Centre, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. j.s.ker@dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Jean S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ker
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dowie
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dowell
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dewar
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dent
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.forename: Sheena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Benvie
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bracher
authors.forename: Cathy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016544:Patient Simulation; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000379:methods*; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*