Standardized patient practices: initial report on the survey of US and Canadian medical schools.
BACKGROUND
There is currently a lack of information about the ways in which standardized patients (SPs) are used, how programs that facilitate their use are operated, the ways in which SP-based performance assessments are developed, and how assessment quality is assured. This survey research project was undertaken to describe the current practices of programs delivering SP-based instruction and/or assessment.


METHODS
A structured interview of 61 individual SP programs affiliated with the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) was conducted over a 7-month period. A web-based data entry system was used by the 11 trained interviewers.


RESULTS
The two most common reported uses of SPs were learner performance assessment (88% of respondents) and small-group instruction (84% of respondents). Fifty-four percent of programs hired 51-100 SPs annually and paid an average of $15 and $16 per hour for training time and portraying a case, respectively. The average reported number of permanent program employees, excluding SPs and temporary staff, was 4.8 (sd = 3.6). The most frequently reported salary range was $30,001-$45,000.


CONCLUSIONS
We intend for these preliminary results to inform the medical education community about the functions of SPs and the structures of programs that implement these complex educational endeavors.
Howley
Lisa D
LD
Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Lisa.howley@carolinashealthcare.org
Gliva-McConvey
Gayle
G
Thornton
Judy
J
D002170:Canada; D003625:Data Collection; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016544:Patient Simulation; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States