Standardized Patient Assessment of Communications in Pharmacy and Medical Students

Authors

James Nawarskas
Mikiko Takeda
Patricia Marshik
Alexandra Herman
Mary Vilay
Krista Salazar
Audrey Bobick
Edward Fancovic

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

10-4-2019

Abstract

Use of activities (i.e. objective structured clinical examinations, or OSCEs) involving standardized patients (SPs) is a commonly used method of assessing communication skills in health sciences education is through the. The use of SPs was associated with higher scores on communications assessments and significant improvements on many subsections of a communications assessment tool in pharmacy students. However, these studies used faculty (not the SPs) to assess the students. While the use of SPs as direct evaluators of communication skills is recognized in medical education it is poorly defined in pharmacy education. In addition, interprofessional education (IPE) environments (including the one here at the University of New Mexico) are likely to use the same SPs to help train and assess students coming from an array of health professional programs. This project studied the utility of using SPs as evaluators of communication skills in pharmacy students and determined the extent of the difference in SP assessment of communication skills in pharmacy and medical students. We believe such knowledge will be helpful for designing and assessing IPE activities that involve SP interactions.

Comments

This poster was presented during the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Education Day, 2019.

Recommended Citation

Nawarskas, James; Mikiko Takeda; Patricia Marshik; Alexandra Herman; Mary Vilay; Krista Salazar; Audrey Bobick; and Edward Fancovic. "Standardized Patient Assessment of Communications in Pharmacy and Medical Students." (2019). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/hsc_ed_day/57