Most f my posts are pretty serious but thought I'd share a story from my time as a standardized patient.
Though I am too disabled to work now, I did manage to work at least part time for most of my life despite my disabilities/chronic illnesses(though it was torture and all I could do was work and sleep). I am a performer. I was in bands/hosted karaoke and I am an actress.
Standardized patients are essentially actors who role play for medical students-usually during testing. We learn our character's histories, symptoms and act out specific scenarios. I worked in a medical school for osteopaths and a big part of my job was observing bedside manners, and giving feedback especially on empathy. Osteopaths need to express empathy during patient encounters or they can fail. I have some stories on working with those who would not pass the empathy tests as well. But I digress...
We as SPs had to learn every aspect of our characters including hobbies substance uses, sexual orientations, marital status etc while also "faking" illnesses. Sometimes we would be cast in roles of illnesses we actually had. I was able to play both an asthma and migraine patient and I already had both of those conditions. I can basically wheeze on que (that's not really a good thing but for these cases I didn't have to fake anything lol).
We worked in mock patient exam rooms with cameras. There was also almost always a faculty member observing in the room. Even when folks were not observing in the room there were students and faculty observing in the media room watching the cameras. We did have to wear hospital gowns but were allowed to wear shorts and sports bras to help with modesty .
Here's a funny story from my first year as an SP. It was during a major exam time for first year med students. I believe this was the finals leading to summer break. Students were observing each other's interactions with patients from the cameras and evaluating each . In this scenario there was just one student in the room but multiple others watching on camera.
Though we had very specific details we all had to be "standardized" as we were allowed to improv a little as long as it was appropriate for the character.
It's final exams for first year med students. Most of them are very nervous and it is kind of high stakes. I don't remember the case exactly but I think it was a sprained ankle (fun fact I also did the fx make up for bruises and wounds sometimes)
We are at interview/the review of systems part of the encounter and the student starts asking social type questions like substance uses, tobacco, cannabis,married/single. Usually when they'd ask "do you drink alcohol?" We would reply "yes" and the student is then supposed to ask for more details like how much, how often etc. This student was very thorough and we did a few round of this for all these questions. Side note: students in every encounter were instructed to ask questions about sexual activity and also menstrual cycles of female patients. These questions are normal and expected.
He then asked if I was sexualy active. My character was and also is married and I said yes. The student then asks "how often?" I could see the embarrassment on the student's face. I pause for a moment thinking "I don't have this data" and came up with a sarcastic joke something to the effect of "well I'm married so not as often as I'd like"
This was followed by an outburst of laughter from the media room as other people heard this as well.
After the encounter we then broke up into groups for feedback. It was myself and another SP talking about the encounters and addressing issues or praising good work. The students /observers were also there.
We started the feedback session with a question like"what have you learned from your colleagues today?" The student I worked with said "Well I have learned from myself not to ask how often a patient has sex. I am so sorry. so embarrassing". Then everyone had a laugh.
I said that I wasn't offended I just didn't have the data and had to think of something. He learned to slow down and make sure he's not just acting on auto pilot and to pay attention to what he was really asking.
It was a funny teaching moment. My co workers and I all had some laughs talking about the story in the break room and the student learned a valuable lesson.
@thebighigg I thought you might get a kick out of this story.
Definitely a funny story!
Thanks for sharing!
As you've done it for multiple years, I guess you'll have more such stories? Looking forward to the next ones! :D
I am so sorry to hear about your state of health dear friend and I am sending my heartfelt prayer to you. You are strong and I believe you will keep fighting
Yeah I do... One of the our instructors was a funny guy, so we all made it a point to make him crack up. I think we all did! The point of the exercise for the first years is to get them to think like a doctor. It honestly really didn't matter how they did because as a first year med student not much is really expected of you!
I loved that job. I just got too sick to do it anymore. The professors and staff were all so nice and treated us like equals. I wish I had taken advantage of being around drs all the time but I spent a lot of energy faking to be well so I could keep my job as long as I could.
I had already suffered so much medical abuse/gaslighting I was terrified if they found out I had ME or fibro I would be fired or ridiculed all day. I was afraid no one would ever take me seriously if they found out.I know now that was a trauma response .
Too bad you got too sick to do it! How are you feeling today?
Tday :I can eat and taste food. Enhanced taste is back. OMG shit tastes so salty (I love salty)
The headache has not gone away. It feels like the bottom of my brain is going to break out of my skull and also like the base of my skull is being slowly crushed at the same time. Also squishy/fluid sounds are still present and always the same (fluid moving upward regardless of if I am moving my head or not)This is not fun. I wonder if slathering a bunch of lidocaine would help. Usually these headaches eventually go away on their own but sometimes last for weeks or longer.
I also have a migraine too.My right eye is not happy with the situation. My migraines are mild but very frequent. More headache days than not . So now 3/4 of my head is in some sort of pain. My left side is ok though.
I'm glad you can taste today! Some progress anyway! It might be worth trying out some lidocaine. It really sucks to have a headache, I hope it clears up for you soon! It's miserable to have frequent headaches like that!
In standardized patient, they tend to be given attention much more than the normal patient? I quite new to the word as this will be the first time I will be hearing about it.
And also how are you doing dear friend
How are you feeling
Standardized patients are actors. As part of medical school students need to do encounters with standardized patients for testing and educational purposes.
Yes they did listen quite well usually but they were being graded. Also osteopaths do emphasize bedside manner and how patients feel as part of their evaluations.
Though I usually played a character there were times where we could essentially play ourselves and use our real medical histories if we chose to. I would at times bring up some of the strange symptoms I was experiencing to see what their reactions/thoughts etc are. The students always listened and most of them never judged. But again I was responsible for part of their grades so they had incentive to listen. :)
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I am feeling better today than the past few days. Thanks for asking.
Oh now I quite understand. Thank you so much for explaining. So we can say they are kind of been used as experiment for teaching the medical students. But that does not sound right to me. How will you pick a patient and made them actors for educational purposes. Probably there should be a contract signed though.
Seems like you go a long way in dictating the grade of the student truly.
I am really happy to hear that you are doing much better than before
!DHEDGE
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The cameras were actually capturing things needed to be captured thereby ensuring the safety of people.
I can but only wish you speedy recovery 🙏❤️