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Related Experiment Videos

Can standardized patients replace physicians as OSCE examiners?

Kevin McLaughlin1, Laura Gregor, Allan Jones

  • 1University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. kevin.mclaughlin@calgaryhealthregion.ca

BMC Medical Education
|March 1, 2006
PubMed
Summary

Standardized patients (SP) are acceptable to medical students but their evaluations do not predict overall competence, unlike physician scores. Further research is needed to validate SP assessment in medical education.

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Area of Science:

  • Medical Education
  • Clinical Skills Assessment

Background:

  • Standardized patients (SP) are increasingly used in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) to reduce variability and physician workload.
  • Concerns exist regarding the adequacy of SP training for valid competence evaluation and feedback.
  • The predictive validity of SP ratings for broader student competence remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate medical student attitudes toward SP examiners.
  • To compare competence evaluations between SP and physician examiners.
  • To assess the predictive validity of SP and physician scores against a multiple-choice questions examination (MCQE).

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional study involving 52 third-year medical students during an Internal Medicine clerkship.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Students completed 8 OSCE stations, with 6 assessed by physicians and 2 by SPs.
  • Statistical analyses included Pearson's correlation, t-tests, effect size, and multiple linear regression.

    • Main Results:

    • Most students found SP stations less stressful and perceived SPs as effective feedback providers, with adequate training.
    • SP examiners assigned higher scores (90.4%) compared to physicians (82.2%), with a weak correlation between their ratings (r=0.4).
    • Physician scores predicted performance on the MCQE (P=0.019), whereas SP scores did not (P=0.133).

    Conclusions:

    • SP examiners are well-accepted by medical students.
    • SP ratings are significantly higher than physician ratings.
    • SP scores lack predictive validity for other measures of medical competence, unlike physician scores.