first standardized patient session

We had a standardized patient (SP) come in today and we interviewed her as part of our normal case study. So instead of reading about a case on paper, we got to interview a real person. An SP is someone who is trained to act like a real patient. They're actors who come in and pretend they have some sort of disease and we interview and eventually do a physical exam and they would respond to our questions as a real patient would. They would show discomfort if we make them uncomfortable and just behave like a real patient w/ real problems would. It's really fun.

Ours had some sort of arthritis in her elbow and hands and we noticed after the interview and getting the paper case that she was right on on most parts of the case except for 1 detail that she got wrong. Overall, she was very convincing and we had a good time in our first interview. She even kept opening and closing her hands as if that movement provided relief.

It was difficult to get a good flow going with 4 people taking turns to interview. The first person definitely had it easier in terms of flow and what to ask. I guess we'll try to plan out topics to cover better for next time and use our Time Out's more efficiently. We get to call Time Out anytime to discuss things w/ the student who's sitting in the interviewer's chair.

It's definitely difficult not knowing enough about history taking to know what else to ask. We kept asking for more info about one issue she was having and it just became repetitive after a while. And we asked A LOT of open ended questions and only near the very end did we start to get specific.

In terms of comforting the patient, we did the very basics, we didn't really touch on issues such as how her medical problems are affecting her work and family life, which we later found after reading the paper case that it did adversely affect it.

Don't get me wrong it was definitely fun and informative and useful. It was really helpful to have the SP there to practice on. It was also really helpful to have a physician there to talk us through it when we got deer in the headlights syndrome.


So when an SP comes in we have to dress in professional attire so here we are. I should've taken one w/ the SP and our physician facilitator. Oh well.

Dad is staying in Socal for now, maybe he'll move here later in the year, I'll have to find a new place at that time. We'll see how it goes.