An Update on the Utilization of Standardized Patients in Physician Assistant Education

Abstract

Purpose: The primary goals of this project were to examine the extent of standardized patient (SP) use during the didactic and clinical phases of physician assistant (PA) programs and to determine how many programs use various SP activities to teach as well as assess clinical skills. Methods: A Web-based survey requesting information related to SP activities in PA programs was sent to 137 PA program directors. Results: Fifty-six programs (41%) completed the survey. The majority (82.1%) of responding programs indicated that they use SPs. Of those programs, nearly all (97.8%) reported using SPs during the didactic phase, and 67.4% reported using SPs during the clinical phase. With the exception of gynecological and urological “invasive” exams, clinical skills are more frequently assessed than taught using SPs. Additionally, the majority of programs (82.2%) use SPs as a component of a summative evaluation. Of those, 72.7% use SPs to evaluate students' clinical skills. Programs affiliated with medical schools have a significantly higher rate of SP use than programs not affiliated with medical schools. The most common reasons for not using SPs are the associated costs and insufficient time and resources to train SPs. Conclusions: The results show a broad reliance on standardized patients to assess various aspects of clinical skills training in PA education. Considering the recent shift to SP-based clinical skills testing of medical students for licensure, the results also highlight the need for further research regarding the specific utilization of SPs and establishment of performance standards.