On fake patients, of course!

In graduate school for psychology, therapists-in-training don’t get much access to such actors. For instance, in my interviewing class during first year, we interviewed fellow classmates. By second year, we were thrown to the wolves, doing therapy in our first practicums. Highly supervised were such sessions, but supervision was after-the-fact, long after the session was over (and the damage from us novice therapists, if any, already done).

Doctors, however, get access to a little different training, as this AP article describes:

The “patient” had spent hours training how to fake it — in the interest of science. It was “Mania Day” at the University of Vermont’s medical school.

One part drama, two parts science as doctors-in-training test their diagnostic skills and bedside manner by assessing the ailments of patients played by real people in a program that’s growing in popularity at U.S. medical schools.

“This environment allows them to practice and make mistakes in an environment conducive to learning before they go to the patient,” said Tamara Owens, president of the Association of Standardized Patient Educators. [...]

“The idea is that if we want every student to handle or work with a patient with a migraine, schizophrenia, bipolar, knee pain, back pain, we can’t assume or hope that patients with those problems are going to present in the hospital or in the office,” said Nicholas.

“So what we can do here is to create any kind of scenario that our clinical faculty want to teach.”

I find it interesting how different professions train their students in sometimes vastly different ways. In fact, I think it’s pretty safe to say that no two professions — even in mental health — train their doctors, therapists, social workers, etc. in the same manner.

Which begs the question — if there’s so much variability in training even with the same profession, especially those professions that place an emphasis on “evidence-based” treatments — how come there’s so little research on these different training methods? Shouldn’t we know what kinds of training work and what kinds don’t?

Read the full article: Fake patients test Vermont medical students

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 10 Jun 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.