Pharmacy faculty and students' perceptions of standardized patients for objective structured clinical examinations

Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) are one method of assessing clinical competency and communication in doctor of pharmacy programs. The purpose of this study was to capture student and faculty perceptions regarding the use of standardized patients (SPs) in administering OSCEs.

Pharmacy students in our program initially participated in OSCEs using internal-SPs (I-SPs) that consisted of faculty and staff acting as patients. One year later, we piloted use of trained actor-based SPs and surveyed students and faculty about the experience.

Fifty-four (80.6%) students and 12 (92.3%) faculty members completed the survey. When asked about their interactions with SPs, 42 (77.8%) students either agreed or strongly agreed that SPs portrayed patients more realistically and 41 (75.9%) students perceived SPs created a more comfortable environment for patient communication than I-SPs. Thirty-six (66.7%) students either agreed or strongly agreed to feeling more confident when communicating with patients, and 33 (61.1%) felt more confident making recommendations. Ten (83.3%) faculty members either agreed or strongly agreed that SPs portrayed patient interactions more realistically, and 7 (58.3%) felt SPs were more consistent in their simulated patient portrayal for the duration of the OSCE.

Pharmacy students felt more confident in their ability to communicate and interact with the patient during their OSCEs when actor-based SPs were used. Both students and faculty members perceived this SP portrayal of patient interactions as more realistic than I-SPs and recommended the continued use of actor-based SPs for OSCEs.