Standardized Patient Program

Your medical education at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine is enhanced through our Standardized Patient Program, which gives you hands-on patient care experience in a simulated environment.

Like most standardized patient programs at other medical schools, our standardized patients are trained to simulate medical cases and evaluate student performance. This helps you develop both your practical and interpersonal clinical skills by practicing a range of skills, from taking patient histories and conducting physical examinations, to important communication skills like counseling or delivering bad news.

At Carle Illinois, we’ve taken the standardized patient program further by integrating it throughout the curriculum. As a medical student here, you will first encounter a case in your problem-based learning environment, later meet that “patient” in the simulated clinic setting in your Introduction to Clinical Practice course, and then connect with them once again in a later case. As a result, you not only get more opportunities to practice and refine your skills, you’ll benefit from longitudinal exposure to these cases.

What is a standardized patient?

A standardized patient is someone who has been hired and trained to simulate a specific patient case. The standardized patient fully embraces the role of the patient, including everything from patient history to expected physical findings. Standardized patients are also able to assess your performance to an extent that is as valuable as faculty feedback.

Facilities

The Standardized Patient Program takes place at the JUMP Simulation Center, which features:

4 outpatient exam rooms
2 ICU rooms
A skills laboratory
4 debrief rooms
A control center for viewing of learner performance

Exam rooms include exam tables, a full complement of outpatient diagnostic equipment, and a computer for documenting. These rooms also have two video cameras for both live and recorded viewing. Recorded videos may be reviewed from personal computers.