Development of Standardized Patients to Learn Communication Skills

Standardized Patients (SPs) has been used as an educational tool for clinical teaching and learning skills among medical students in developed countries. The objective of the study was to look at the second year medical students' perception toward SPs for learning to communicate with patients during history taking.The study comprised of two components: a developmental project and a descriptive research component, conducted at the School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia during the teaching of the Respiratory Block involving 203 medical students. A total of 155 students were involved as respondents.Most of the students were satisfied with the elements of venue, duration of the session, facilities, instruction for reviewers and patient scenario sheet that were utilised during the history taking session. 83.1% of the respondents had satisfactory overall perception toward the SPs. This study revealed that most of students were satisfied with the SPs performance and had positive perception toward using SPs for learning to communicate with patients.