RESUMO
The role of standardized patients (SPs) has developed rapidly over the last10years because of medical education curriculum reform and the introduction of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). As the participation of SPs in medical education has increased, the anxieties and frustrations of SPs have also increased. We believe that an understanding of the attitudes of SPs would improve the quality of their activities. The purpose of this survey was to study the activities and psychological needs of Japanese SPs in the OSCE.<BR>1) The response rate to the nationwide survey was62% (332of532SPs).<BR>2) Role-playing and group discussion were the most common training methods, and the length of training varied from 0 to 40 hours.<BR>3) The factors that SPs felt difficult were judging how much to respond in their performances (73%) and maintaining consistent standards in evaluating examinees (66%).<BR>4) Our results suggest that SPs require more training and that the number of SP educators should be increased.
RESUMO
The curriculum of the Duke University School of Medicine is unique and innovative because it starts clinical clerkships in the 2nd year and has introduced research fellowships in the 3rd year. New external pressures require innovations. The innovations of the Duke curriculum are as follows: greater integration of clinical and basic-science education, continuous early clinical exposure in clinics and hospitals, a stronger structure for clinical educational programs, monitoring of each student's performance and of the effectiveness of programs, and extensive program evaluation by surveying directors of graduates.