Checklist self-evaluation in a standardized patient exercise

Standardized patient (SP) exercises are expensive and time consuming. We hypothesized that self-evaluation would further the goals of teaching and evaluation for a group of medical students.

Students were given self-evaluation checklists (essentially identical to those filled out by the SPs) and completed them prior to reviewing the SP checklists. Agreement between student and SP checklists (whether each item was checked or not) and the extent of agreement on the interactional skills rating scales were assessed.

Overall agreement was 93%, with 98% agreement on interactional items, 92% on physical examination items, and 89% on history items. Disagreements tended to be clustered on a few items in each scale. Scores on the interactional skills rating scales also showed strong agreement.

The use of checklists and rating scales in this context is well established. At virtually no cost, a self-evaluation tool adds a valuable dimension to the exercise.