Developing Simulated and Virtual Patients in Psychological Assessment – Method, Insights and Recommendations

Abstract

The phenomena of the simulated (SP) and virtual patient (VP) is widely described in the literature. Although it is difficult to find any practical information on developing these methods for teaching psychological assessment. Having conducted a long-term research project regarding this topic, we report the experience gained and retrospectively identify many mistakes. In this article, we present a summary of creating and using both SP and VP methods in clinical psychology and propose some insights and tips for their development, based on our experiences. While the project concerned clinical psychology, we believe the reflections might be applicable to a wider group of educational situations in which students develop competencies to carry out a diagnostic process with a real patient.