Standardized patient experiences: evaluation of clinical performance and nurse practitioner student satisfaction

Standardized Patients (people trained to accurately portray a specific patient) have been widely used by medical schools and, to a lesser degree, by schools of nursing as a method for evaluating clinical performance. These trained patients provide a viable method for teaching and evaluating nurse practitioner students as they progress through their educational programs toward clinical competency. Evaluation using Standardized Patient Experiences provides objective and valid information regarding students' synthesis of didactic information and abilities to apply knowledge in the clinical setting. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of Standardized Patient Experiences across a curriculum for family nurse practitioner and adult geriatric nurse practitioner students. Students evaluated the experiences throughout the curriculum and overwhelmingly found them to be realistic, challenging, and of value to their programs of study.