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A faculty instructor demonstrating patient intubation procedure using the high fidelity simulator, SimMan®, to a medical student Medical student providing ventilation to a patient simulator using a bag valve mask Using the Virtual IV Self-Directed Learning System, a medical student practices the psychomotor skills of performing intravenous catherization

Institute for Clinical Simulation and Patient Safety

Clinical Skills Program

The Clinical Skills Program uses both Standardized Patients and Patient Instructors to provide learning opportunities for medical students.

 

Standardized Patients (SP) are lay persons trained to simulate, in a consistent, standardized manner, a patient in a medical situation. SPs are used by Temple University School of Medicine to train and evaluate students in the clinical skills of interviewing and examining patients. SPs learn a case, based on a real patient other than themselves, and are interviewed and examined by students as though they were that person in the doctor’s office or clinic, giving that patient’s history, and simulating their physical signs, such as pain or difficulty walking.

 

Patient Instructors (PI) are lay persons who have been trained to teach the basic motor skill aspects of a physical examination. They instruct students how to make use of some simple physical examination equipment such as tuning forks, blood pressure cuffs, ophthalmoscopes, etc. They then teach students basic physical examination skills such as auscultating the heart and lungs, palpating the abdomen, eliciting reflexes etc.

 

Both Standardized Patients and Patient Instructors are valuable in teaching students how to relate to their patients in a professional manner when carrying out physical examinations.

 

 

Current Activities of Temple University School of Medicine SP Program

 

First year: Doctoring Course

  • Teaching interviewing skills in small group sessions. Emphasis on basic interviewing technique and creating a professional manner.
  • Interviewing skills practice in individual sessions.
  • Teaching and practicing combined interviewing / physical examination skills.
  • Assessment of interviewing / doctor-patient interaction / physical examination skills by means of an OSCE format:

O Objective
S Structured
C Clinical
E Examination

 

Second year: Fundamentals of Clinical Care Course

  • Enhancing interviewing skills by practice in small group sessions with emphasis on particular clinical issues such as working with patients with disabilities, substance abuse, domestic violence, teenage sexuality, giving bad news. Emphasis is on building a therapeutic doctor/patient relationship.
  • Assessment of interviewing / doctor-patient interaction / physical examination skills by means of an OSCE format.

 

End of third year

  • Formative and summative assessment of integrated clinical skills of interviewing / doctor-patient interaction / clinical reasoning / physical examination / interpretation of other clinical material / written reporting, using an OSCE format.
  • This OSCE also functions as preparation to the Step 2CS (Clinical Skills) Examination.

 

Current Activities of Temple University School of Medicine PI Program

 

First year: Doctoring Course

  • At the start of the year, teaching the following examination:

    Extremities
    Cardiac
    Pulmonary
    Abdominal
    Neurological
    Head / Eyes / Ears / Nose / Throat

  • Emphasis is on developing technique, professional manner, and observing normal, healthy bodies in preparation for later examination of real patients with pathology.

 

Second year: Fundamentals of Clinical Care Course

  • As in current first year of Doctoring Course.