Simulated-patient evaluations during formative interviews predict exam performance better than self-reported empathy...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Communication in Healthcare

Background:

• Communication skills are crucial in clinical practice and assessed via Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs).
• Existing research shows self-reported questionnaires, simulated-patient evaluations, and expert assessments offer distinct insights into medical students' communication abilities.
• The predictive power of these assessment methods on future OSCE performance remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if self-reported empathy, emotion recognition ability, and simulated-patient evaluations predict medical students' subsequent OSCE performances.
• To determine the most effective assessment modality for identifying students struggling with communication competencies.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the ETMED‑L longitudinal cohort project at the University of Lausanne.
• Assessed self-reported empathy and emotion recognition using validated instruments and performance tasks.
• Collected simulated-patient evaluations during formative interviews and expert-rated OSCE scores.
• Employed structural equation modeling to analyze predictive relationships.

Main Results:

• In both third- and fifth-year medical students, self-reported empathy, emotion recognition, and simulated-patient evaluations independently predicted OSCE performance.
• In combined models, only simulated-patient evaluations significantly predicted OSCE performance (moderate effect in third-years, small effect in fifth-years).

Conclusions:

• Simulated-patient evaluations during formative training are stronger predictors of OSCE performance than empathy or emotion recognition measures.
• Structured simulated-patient programs are valuable for identifying medical students needing support in communication competency development within competency-based curricula.