Real patient involvement in role development: evaluating patient focused resources for clinical procedural skills

Simulated patients (SPs) are widely used in medical education. The literature offers little evidence for scenario or SP role development. Published materials describe guidelines for structuring roles but there is little information on process. Anecdotal evidence suggests that SP roles are usually created by health care professionals and teachers. Although this approach has advantages it places the role at risk of omitting or misrepresenting real patients' experiences.

We wanted to explore a systematic approach to role development that was based on individual patient's experiences.

Real patients were interviewed about their experiences of procedures they had undergone. This information formed the basis of our procedural skills SP roles.

Eight new roles were created. Evaluation by SPs (n = 22) showed more positive comments about realism on roles based on real patients' experiences compared with those crafted by our multidisciplinary team although there were no statistically significant differences in numerical ratings.

The approach to writing roles described here is not suited to all simulations. However, it offers guidance to those involved in writing scenarios and has led us to critically reflect on the ways in which we provide educational materials that are patient focused.