Training Standardized Patients to Provide Feedback for Ethics Teaching

Abstract

SPs provide students with opportunities to respond to ethical issuesthey have not yet experienced, explore their emotional reactions, andhone their communication skills. Each of these components of a patientencounter can be discussed in an environment that is conducive tolearning. During the past two years, the Division of Health Care Ethicshas been using Standardized Patients (SPs) in the Medical StudentInterns' (MSIs) introductory week of teaching at the University ofBritish Columbia (UBC). A unique feature of this teaching method is thefeedback SPs provide following the interview with a student. Throughthis feedback, students at UBC are given a rare glimpse into thepatient's perspective as they approach an ethical challenge. Thisfeedback includes student's communication skills, compassion, andunderstanding of the problem. As a result, students are not onlyexpected to identify key ethical components of a case, but also learnstrategies for dealing with difficult decisions. Special care is takenwhen choosing SPs to simulate ethics cases, ensuring they have theability to present a challenging simulation and provide appropriatefeedback.