Advocacy skills in resident doctors

The objective of this project was to study whether a standardised patient clinical encounter learning exercise improved an Obstetrics and Gynaecology (OBGYN) resident's ability to perform patient advocacy, a systems-based practice skill.

Case-control study: each of the 12 residents functioned as their own control. Additionally, aggregate data from the programme was reviewed.

Twelve residents from a mid-sized OBGYN residency programme performed a standardised patient clinical encounter exercise in March of 2014. As demonstrated by the Assessment for Professional Behavior (APB) 360° evaluation, the overall total scores for the programme on patient advocacy improved, with statistical significance, when analysed by the signed ranked test. Additionally, the residents' self-identified capability to perform advocacy improved after the programme, with statistical significance, when analysed by the signed rank test.

A standardised patient clinical encounter, used as a learning exercise, can demonstrate meaningful improvement in the advocacy skills of a resident doctor.