School of Medicine’s Office of Medical Education seeks Standardized Patients

The University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Office of Medical Education is seeking to increase its ranks of people who can serve as Standardized Patients (SPs) to help teach medical students to become Nevada’s future physicians.

“Standardized patients serve as surrogate patients to help educate and assess medical students’ skills,” said William Murphy-Sharp, program coordinator for Simulated Patient Education. “They act out and tell mock patient stories and record how the student did during a medical exam to evaluate the student’s performance as a potential physician.”

SPs essentially take on the role of a patient presenting themselves to a physician (medical student) with a predetermined set of symptoms. The medical student, acting as the physician, takes the standardized “patient’s” medical, family and social history and performs a medical examination as if in a medical facility.

SPs receive a script with a fictional patient’s history and a specific set of symptoms to portray for medical students. Coaching and rehearsal sessions are part of the process which requires SPs to practice in preparation for the rehearsals. This preparation allows each student to receive a consistent learning experience.

The Simulated Patient Education Program uses male and female volunteers of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and any age from teenagers to elders. Standardized Patients should live within a one-hour radius of the School of Medicine on the University of Nevada, Reno campus and must be able to get to the campus by their own means. The person’s ability to meet deadlines, work independently and be a team member, are each crucial to their success in the program.

A limited number of openings are now available for Standardized Patients in the spring semester this academic year.

Those interested in finding out more about the Simulated Patient Education Program should contact Murphy-Sharp by email, at the program website or by calling 775-682-7724.

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