gms | German Medical Science

Background: Medical students’ perceptions of the use of standardized patients (SP) in communication training in medicine have been studied intensively, but insights about faculty perception of this type of simulation training remain an exception. This study aimed to assess faculty’s as well as students’ perception of the relevancy of SP communication training, as well as its closeness to reality.

Method: During two consecutive semesters, faculty (N=38) and students (N=164) were surveyed by standardized questionnaire after having taught, or attended, SP training sessions. The questionnaire allowed each group of participants to rate several aspects of the training such as its closeness to reality and relevancy to real-life physician-patient interaction on a set scale. Open questions provided further opportunity to reflect the training.

Findings: The results suggest that faculty’s perception of relevance and realism (p=.021) of SP training increases with teaching experience. This perception appears to be influenced by factors such as internal or external status of the faculty member (p=.039) as well as his or her own experience with communication training during medical studies (p=.036). When comparing faculty members’ perception of SP training with students’ perception, it became evident that faculty rated the training as more realistic (p=.007) and more relevant in terms of physician-patient interaction (p=.021) than students.

Discussion: Communication training with SP is valued highly by faculty mainly because of its versatility and broad spectrum of applicability. Its wide range of application in medical education seems most evident to senior faculty because of their increased amount of experience with physician-patient interaction, whereas junior faculty and medical students are often hindered by the aspect of simulation caused by the fact that the patients are “merely” actors.