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The evaluation of physician assistant students' history-taking abilities using actors as standardized patients
Wendy Hoon Langen1, Debbi Hanson, Richard Fien
1Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida, USA. wlangen@mail.barry.edu
Purpose:
The value of professional actors as standardized patients (SPs) was evaluated in an exercise that normally uses students for SPs.
Methods:
A history-taking instructional curriculum was developed for a clinical skills exam for second-year students. Students anonymously rated their impressions of actors versus physician assistant (PA) students as patient simulators and assessed this exercise in the terms of the history-taking task areas described in the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) Blueprint.
Results:
PA students perceived the actor SPs as more similar to real patients than peers simulating patients, developed greater confidence in history-taking ability, and believed that they significantly enhanced their history-taking skills.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates that students value the use of professional actors to simulate patients in teaching history-taking. Overall positive results encourage the use of professional actors as standardized patients.
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